


Mistrust Goes Both Ways

by thoseindarkness



Series: Deceive the Deceiver [2]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Ben is an asshole, Espionage, Flirting, Flirting (like a motherfucker), Implied Sexual Content, Imprisonment, Mental Health Issues, Mild Sexual Content, Multi, Nightmares, Past Torture, Past Violence, Sexual Tension, Sleep Deprivation, Slow Burn, Spies & Secret Agents, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2020-10-21 00:14:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 58,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20684291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thoseindarkness/pseuds/thoseindarkness
Summary: Clandestine organization, The Alliance, is trying to stay out of the Hutt War because their real enemies are lingering in the shadows. The First Order remains, dormant, a whisper, out of reach. In the midst of an increasingly hectic mission schedule Ben and Rey are still feeling out their new and tenuous relationship. Poe is pulled in on a dark op to find the key to an old and devastating weapon. In a world where truths are in short supply, the question asked and the ones left unspoken are just as important as the answers and often more telling.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to another installment of Deceive the Deceiver. I won't say much but thank you to everyone who started this journey with me. Welcome if you are new. Welcome back if you are not. This is where the fun begins. Shit's about to get real so buckle up buttercup. You get one warning: I know a thousand ways to lie. I'm very good at it and will employ every trick in the book. I will never lie to you directly because an author must never lie to their reader, but let me assure you, you will be lied to. 
> 
> Don't trust me.
> 
> A huge thank you goes out to my betas: [elemie89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elemie89/pseuds/elemie89), [JenfysNest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JenfysNest/pseuds/JenfysNest), [ PeaceBlessingsPeyton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PeaceBlessingsPeyton/pseuds/PeaceBlessingsPeyton), and [sidsaid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sidsaid/pseuds/sidsaid). Thank you for all the work you've done and for putting up with me dumping 12 chapters on you all at once. You are all goddesses. Everyone should go read their work. 🖤
> 
> As always, updates will go out every Wednesday at midnight (EST) starting 9/18 and ending 12/4 (just in time for TRoS).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rey checked the surveillance feeds again. The server farm was quiet. Security wouldn't be back through for another half an hour. Everything was clear as Ben pulled the panel off the server.

"I'm in," Ben said in her ear.

She checked the view from his optics. He'd connected the secure transmitter to the server.

"Conder," Rey said. "You're up."

Conder Kyl's face appeared in the central column, bald head dipped over his keyboard as he worked. "I'm connected."

"Reset and go to marker two," Rey said. "I'll let you know when you're clear to retrieve the tech."

"Anything for you," Ben said in a near pornographic whisper.

A muted chuckle slithered through the lower tiers of the octagonal Pit. Rey rolled her eyes. His flirtations were getting more and more heavy handed. She was going to have to do something about it, she just hadn't figured out what.

A hand touched her shoulder, and she turned to smile up at Poe Dameron. "Don't let him get under your skin."

She muted her line. "Working on it."

"Might I suggest a change in tactics?" He winked.

"Such as?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "Give as good as you get."

She glanced back at the screen, a knot forming in her stomach at the thought of 'giving' in such a public place. She distracted herself with the work. Conder was three minutes into a twenty minute hack. Ben was creeping down a corridor of servers toward a vacant bathroom out in the hall. He'd ride out the hack there and go back for the tech when it was over. He reached the bathroom without incident, locked the door and sat with his back against it. He'd left the lights out just in case, so the room was relatively dark though his optics.

"So what should we do while we wait?" he whispered.

"You'll be quiet," she replied. "Lest someone hear you."

"Is anyone around?" he whispered.

Out of habit she glanced at each of the surveillance feeds in front of her. "All clear."

"Then what are you worried about?"

"Keeping you alive. That's my job, despite how difficult you make it."

"Awe, you do care."

"I'm paid to care."

"Still counts."

Rey rolled her eyes. She hated Ben most when he was on assignment. At home he wasn't quite so bad, but that attitude of his got bigger when he was away. Especially after the Hutts went to war. All their teams had been running nonstop for two months. It wasn't uncommon for an Agent to complete one mission and fly straight to the next without coming home. It wasn't supposed to be the norm, but had become so in the chaos.

"Come on, Rey. Tell me a story. Preferably a dirty one."

More chuckles from the peanut gallery. She glanced over her shoulder to the gallery. Sure enough, Leia was standing at the railing.

"Your mother's watching you know."

"My mother's always watching. If I let that stop me I'd never get laid. You know," he said, pitching his voice low, "now that you mention it, _you're_ always watching."

Rey closed her eyes, feeling the defeat settle in.

If it were possible, his voice dropped another half octave. "Tell me, how does that make you feel? Watching me put my hands on all those beautiful women."

"All two of them?" she snapped.

"You're counting?"

"Would you shut up?" She checked the feeds. Still clear. She checked the progress of the hack. Halfway there.

"Or would you prefer if were with men? Does that do it for you, Rey?"

She ignored him. That was the only option left to her. She muted her line and double checked the escape route. It wasn't necessary. She and Ben had both checked it several times. It was solid. Ben continued to whisper indecencies in her ear. She tuned them out. Then she caught movement in the hall. Someone was heading his way.

"Ben, you've got incoming."

"So?"

"Be quiet, he'll hear you."

"Then answer the question."

"What question?"

"What are you wearing?"

"Oh for—"

"He won't shut up until you answer the question, Johnson." Rey twisted to look at Leia, who shrugged.

Rey glanced down at her attire, mind racing. The guard was getting closer.

"Rey? I can't hear you?" Ben whispered.

She looked around the room, at all the faces on her, all waiting for her to make a move. Her eyes fell on Poe. He nodded encouragingly.

"Fine!" she barked. She took a deep breath and dropped her voice to a sultry whisper. "But you have to promise me you'll not say a single word. Can you do that for me, Ben?" She practically moaned his name. "Tap twice on the comm for yes."

She heard the two soft taps.

"Good. I love it when you follow orders." An idea popped into her head then, random and completely insane, but it was the only one she had. "I decided to wear something very special today."

She kept her words slow, steady, breathy. The longer she could drag this stupidity out, the better. The timer said they still had four minutes before the hack was done. She pulled up a search window and began typing.

"I wanted to feel good so I wore something soft," she groaned.

The guard reached the bathroom door and kept walking.

"You can't imagine how good it feels against my skin. It's the softest fabric I own. Softer than silk. Softer than a woman's hands." She let her voice dip so low that it was barely audible. "You know how soft a woman's hands can be, don't you Ben?"

She noticed his blink rate had increased. The search came back. It was perfect. She swapped to her other monitor and loaded up the server room's electronic safety measures. They'd only looked into it as a back-up plan to their back-up plan, but if she knew Ben, she was going to need it.

"God, I love rubbing it all over my skin. You can't begin to imagine how good it feels. Sometimes, I take off all my clothes and only put this one thing on then I stare at myself in the mirror."

The timer said two minutes left on the hack. The guard reached the end of the hall and turned down a corner.

Poe leaned over her terminal. "Holy shit," he whispered. "Look at his biometrics. Keep going."

Ben was flustered. Heart rate elevated. Pulse racing. O2 levels spiking.

She chuckled, keeping up the act. "You know, I've never shown it to you. This thing I like to wear. I like to keep it to myself." She sighed. "But I think you want to know what it is. Are you curious, Ben? Should I tell you? And remember, no talking."

He tapped twice on the mic. Every eye in the room was on her now. A message window popped up on her screen. It was Conder.

_Don't mean to interrupt your fun. We're clear._

"You have to do something for me first," she whispered. "And you have to be completely silent. Go get the uplink from the server. If you do this, I'll tell you." She chuckled. "If you do this for me, Ben, I'll send you a picture. Would you like that?"

He tapped twice on the mic as his optics slid upward. He was standing now. The Pit was silent as a graveyard. They watched through the security feeds as Ben made his way back into the server room. He retrieved the device, pocketing it, replacing the panel on the server. She watched through the cameras as he turned, leaned against the server he'd just burglarized and pulled out his phone. A second later the message popped up on her screen.

_I'm waiting._

She'd seen that one coming. Checking to make sure that everything was in place she brought up the server room's security features, moved back to her search and copied the picture of the item she'd been _describing_ to Ben.

Poe caught it out of the corner of his eye, stifling a laugh. "Oh no."

All eyes were on the central column. On the feed from Ben's cell as she sent the image. She could see through his optics as the image came in. He clicked on it, leaning closer to the screen to get a better look… then all at once he started cackling.

"North exit, twelve seconds!" She barked and activated the fire alarms. Ben had twelve seconds to get out of that room before it was flooded with halon.

* * *

No matter how many times Cassian walked into it, Takodana never changed. He made his way down the stone steps of the old castle, past the live band on the front stage, and the card tables along the west wall. At the back of room Maz looked up at him through her coke bottle glasses. She frowned at him and nodded to the left, her wrinkled face and dark skin contorted around her pursed lips to make her look like an overripe prune. The moment she turned to one of her patrons the smile was back on her face.

Cassian turned toward the side room, wending his way through the maze of dance floors, gambling tables and mingling bodies. On the second floor he found the booths that overlooked the south room. Loud music and pulsing lights made excellent cover for clandestine activities. If no one saw it and no one heard it, then it didn't happen. He walked past a series of alcoves, most with curtains closed. Many with a nasty looking fucker standing watching outside.

He checked them off as he passed, cataloging the information for later. Russians, Italians, Canadians, Columbians, and his personal favorite, the Swiss. Because the world's best kept secret was that Switzerland had the oldest and most powerful mafia in the world. The Italians wished they were the Swiss.

At the end of the hall he came up empty handed. No familiar faces on this floor. He leaned against the railing, surveying the busy dance floor below and tapped the face of his watch.

"On it," the flat voice in his ear said.

Kato So was Cassian's oldest friend. The two of them went way back. All the way to a shared childhood in Mexico City where the tall, lanky, redheaded, half Asian kid was a fish out of water.

"Turn your head six degrees right," Kato directed. Most people were unsettled by how robotic he was, Cassian was used to it. "Down three degrees. Three more. Hold." Cassian waited while the contact lenses in his eyes zoomed in on the bar below, running body scans and facial recognition. "Slow sweep." Cassian moved his gaze along the bar. "Hold."

Data pulled up on an invisible screen in front of him. The technology in their optics allowed for a heads up display that looked like it was a few feet in front of him, but was actually right against his cornea. He marveled at how far the technology had come. He remembered the days when he carried poison capsules in the heels of his shoes. Now there was a damn implant in his neck that reported back every time he got a hard on.

"That one," Kato droned.

The lenses zoomed in on their contact. Tivik, no last name. Low level shaker in the Partisans. Tivik was a long way from Honduras and Cassian was pretty sure Gerrera wouldn't be happy if he found out why.

"I hope Chewie was right about this one," Cassian mumbled.

"Agreed," Kato replied.

Cassian took a leisurely stroll toward the dancefloor. He found a beautiful woman to dance with. Then another. When the third one seemed interested, he offered to buy her a drink. She accepted and they made their way to the bar. He found a spot next to his mark and made sure the woman was between them as he ordered their drinks.

They chatted idly for a few minutes before he asked the leading question. "Where you from?"

"Amsterdam," the woman said, touching his arm. His display told him her heart rate was elevated, her pupils dilated and she was _excited_. "What about you?"

"Alderaan," Cassian replied. "I grew up on the Wuitho River, spitting distance from the palace. Have you ever had Alderaanian emerald wine? It's to die for."

The girl smiled, leaning closer, but his words hadn't been for her. The man behind her frowned, clearing his throat. His heart rate sped up, body heat spiking. The man waved down the bartender and ordered a Red Dwarf. Message received.

Cassian continued his flirtation with the woman while the man behind her grew more and more agitated. He couldn't push it much longer or Tivik was going to bolt. Chewie had warned him this one was skittish. Cassian leaned in, whispering in the girl's ear.

"Let's get out of here. I have a place rented not far away."

She nodded and while her attention was otherwise occupied, Cassian reached across the bar, fumbling for his drink and knocking Tivik's elbow.

"Excuse you," Tivik spat.

"Sorry man," Cassian chuckled.

Tivik frowned at him, sliding the data chip under the napkin beneath Cassian's drink before pushing off the bar. He collected his things and disappeared into the crowd. A few minutes later Cassian was weaving his way back to the exit with his lovely new friend in tow. He passed Maz on the way out nodding in her direction. It took only a fraction of a second for his brain to catch up to the tiny shake of her head as he passed. Immediately he glanced around the room. There were three of them. Two on his right, one on his left. He unlaced his fingers from the girls hand and dipped down to sneeze. Once, twice, a third.

"I see them," Kato said. "Calling now."

Cassian's cell phone rang. He turned to the girl as he pulled it from his pocket. "If you'll give me just a second. I need to take this." He bent to kiss her cheek, a sign to Maz that the girl wasn't involved. "I'll be right back."

He moved off to the opposite end of the room from where he'd come. There was a service entrance there. If he took his fight out back, Maz would make sure the girl didn't get mixed up in all this. Cassian pulled the phone to his ear as he walked through the door clearly marked NO ADMITTANCE. The moment it closed behind him he pulled his firearm and ducked into the first space he could find, a broom closet.

"Two coming after you. One staying by the door." Kato explained.

A floorplan overlaid the room around Cassian. Three red dots on either side of the door he'd just walked through. Four more standing out back waiting for him. This was not good.

"Facial rec hits on three identify hostiles as former Imperial. Possibly First Order. Additional data required."

Cassian waited until they were closer before he put his shoulder against the door, not to open it, just to get in position. Just a few more steps. He pushed the door wide, his silenced pistol already moving toward its first target. He took out the knee on the first one then the head. The second one trained a firearm on him. Cassian put two in his chest. Center mass. Missed the heart. He stood angling for the head shot. One final shot and they were both down. He trained on the door. No movement.

He didn't wait to be discovered – skipping the rear exit and the collection of warm bodies waiting for him – ducking through cold storage into the wine cellar. There was a way out through the cellar. It was clear. He burst out into the night air. The biting autumn wind cutting straight through his leather jacket.

"You've been made," Kato said flatly.

"I hadn't noticed," Cassian replied, breaking into a run. "Start me up!"

"Auto piloted already engaged."

His vehicle was already moving. It backed out of the space and slowly moved toward the aisle to intercept him.

"Twelve feet," Kato said.

Cassian put on a burst of speed, cursing his age, his bad knees, the cold, Bail Organa for recruiting him and his own mother for birthing him.

"Eight feet," Kato said.

Shots rang around him and swerved.

"Four—"

_"¡Cállate pendejo!"_ Cassian spat.

"There's no need to be rude, Cassian."

The car passed out of the lot and onto the grass, speeding toward him. Closing the distance to the safety of bulletproof glass. A round ricocheted off the bodywork, not leaving a scratch. The passenger door swung open. Cassian dove for it, barely getting a look at the dozen men running across the lawn after him before the engine revved and he tore off into the night.

"What the fuck was that?" Cassian heaved.

"You were shot at by former Imperials."

"No shit, why?"

"Uncertain. Additional data required."

Cassian shook his head. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Cassian pulled out his phone, removing the rear casing and plugging the chip in. He prayed to whatever gods might listen that this intel was solid. After two months with no leads, finding out Erso had a daughter was his first real break. He needed a win here.

"Chip's in. I'm taking over." Cassian slid into the driver's seat, feeling the pedal ease back under his foot. "You probably want to get out of there. If they found me at Maz's they'll be in Andui soon enough."

"They arrived at the apartment seven minutes ago. I am in a café across the street."

"What? Get the hell out of there."

"Your concern is appreciated, but I am safer waiting until they move on." Cassian's HUD lit up with a set of coordinates and a route to follow. "I will meet you in Großkampenberg."

"What about the intel?"

"It is satisfactory."

"Meaning?"

"We have Jyn Erso's location."

"Yes!" Cassian slammed his palm into the steering wheel. "Where?"

"You're not going to like it."

* * *

Leia had always hated tomatoes. When she was a little girl she could be found picking them out of her salads at state dinners which always infuriated her mother. As she got older, she learned to live around them. She was careful not to order them and on the rare occasion they found their way into her food she picked them out and thought of her mother. The months after her parents death were the hardest. Everything reminded her of them, but nothing more so than an errant tomato.

It was silly to think that Leia could fall in love with a man because of tomatoes, but she had. Without fail, at any meal where a stray red berry tried to pull her into dark thoughts Han was there to eat the evidence. They disappeared from her sandwiches before she could pluck them out. They vanished from atop her salads before she could reach the end of the commissary line. Tomatoes went from a painful reminder of loss to a playful way one man showed her how much he cared.

It should have been the indicator that Han was not to be trusted, that he was not a nice man, a scoundrel through and through. How could Leia ever love a man who ate so many tomatoes? Han wasn't around anymore and the tomatoes at the edge of her plate remained uneaten.

"Leia? Earth to Leia, anyone home?"

Leia blinked at her half-eaten sandwich, the offending fruit perched precariously on the lip. "Sorry, Ams." She shook away the haze of memory. "Got lost there for a second. Where were we?"

Amilyn sighed sympathetically. It wasn't hard for her to guess where Leia's thoughts had wandered. To her credit, she didn't press the issue. There would be room for that later, at home, over a bottle of wine. For the moment they still had work to do.

"We were wrapping up field assignments," Amilyn said.

"Yeah, Orellios."

"Orellios?" Amilyn shook her head, scrolling through her tablet, lunch disregard on the coffee table. "You really checked out on me."

"How much did I miss?"

"Don't worry about it, Zeb's meeting with his contact next week."

"Yeah, I got that."

"And if it goes well, he'll take the job—"

"And work his way up through the Black Sun. I remember this part."

"Okay." Amilyn shuffled to the next assignment. "Ben's mission was a success. We've got Conder's team tearing through RDR's security now. He thinks we'll have an open back door within a week. Signal Intelligence already has a team waiting in the wings. Once we're in, they'll tear through that data."

Leia noted the omission. Amilyn wasn't overly formal with people. She was the good cop to Leia's bad cop. Ever since Karé Kun took over for Ahsoka as head of Signal Intelligence, Amilyn had avoided saying her name in Leia's hearing. It stood to reason. There was a solid three weeks in there where Leia seriously considered making the woman disappear. That passed, mostly. Maybe it was a good thing Amilyn avoided the girl's name.

"Where are we with Ben's drugs? It's been three weeks and I'm starting to get nervous."

Amilyn cocked an eyebrow at Leia. "Starting?"

"Well, no use getting rattled every time something goes a _little_ wrong."

"Three weeks isn't a little."

"Hence the starting." Leia pulled her coffee toward her, it was stone cold. She drank it anyway.

Amilyn chuckled, probably at the face she made. "Harter's working on a new formula. She said something about tweaking the formula anyway, because Ben's building a tolerance, but I haven't had a chance to read the write-up yet. Either way, we're working on an alternate solution. Reserves are running a bit low here, but I've reallocated stores from Mon Cala and Jedah."

Leia nodded.

"Kay was consulting on the server job, so the Jakarta report won't be in until this afternoon."

"How long was he out?" Leia felt like it had been forever since she'd seen him. He hadn't gotten any downtime on the last pass through Naboo. He was overdue for a little rest.

"Almost six weeks. It was a long one for him."

Leia nodded. "Make sure he's down at least three days when he gets back."

"I'm going to hold you to that." Amilyn made a note in her tablet.

"Good. Someone should."

"We've also got a few hits from Artie. He's requesting assists on two. Jabba put out a job recently – cargo theft – nothing that immediately raised red flags. A few days later we found the flags. The cargo is a prototype weapon developed by Denelex labs." Amilyn flipped her screen toward Leia. On it there was an internal memo from Denelex. "It disappeared from their lab three days ago. Two people from R&D are dead and they're burying it."

Leia scanned the document. The weapon could interrupt electrical function in the body, in theory without harming the subject. Not only would it incapacitate an enemy, it could interrupt all their wearables and bio-upgrades. "Do we know who's behind the theft?"

"Looks like Black Sun. Ziro hasn't shopped for a buyer, but whispers say he's looking for a middle man to transport a sensitive package. The price keeps going up but no one is taking the job."

"Because everyone knows Ziro recently got into bed with some very dangerous friends."

Amilyn nodded. "And so far people are steering clear. Ziro's got a meeting with a possible courier later this week in Vancouver. He's being especially careful with this one. The last job he botched cost him six men."

"I remember…" Leia's thoughts wandered, her mind calling up the image of the tiny blue marble she called home. She could see every one of her Agents and teams on it like tiny dots moving around a chess board. "Damn shame Orellios is already slated. Ben's the closest asset we have to Vancouver."

"We have a couple of days and his meds _are_ running low." Amilyn replied.

"This is First Order. Send Ben as recon only. Let's see what we can find out about this deal. I don't want that weapon falling into their hands."

"What about Jabba? We need him off the table if the package moves. I can send a Relay."

"No, I don't want them in the middle of this. Tell Artie to send a few assets Jabba's way. Three or four should do. If they're fighting each other for the goods and the shipment _happens _to be destroyed in the process…" Leia shrugged. "That should put the heat back on Jabba and pull attention away from any involvement on our part."

Amilyn typed her notes and kept moving. "Final update, Cassian got a lead on Erso's daughter, Jyn."

"That sounds promising."

"There are complications."

Leia sighed. "What kind of complications?"

"For starters, she was picked up seven months ago under the alias Nari McVee. The Portuguese government extradited her to Estonia where she was wanted on seventeen counts of fraud, four or which were against the monarch. She's in the Wobani Detention Center."

"That's good," Leia took another sip of her cold coffee. "Negotiating her release shouldn't be too difficult. The Estonian's owe us."

"Wait for it," Amilyn swiped several times and turned the tablet around to Leia. "Three weeks ago she started a schoolyard brawl during recess. Two guards were badly injured. One of the replacements has taken a serious liking to her."

Leia watched the prison's surveillance footage as two officers escorted Jyn from her solitary holding cell to an empty shower facility. One guard stopped at the door. The other escorted her in. The moment the door closed he leaned against the tile and waved her forward. There was no sound, but the smile on Jyn's face said she wasn't afraid. The guard remained relaxed as she bathed and they chatted idly. At one point he turned his head toward a sound in the hall, straightening up as she scanned the area. He'd done a damn good job of hiding under the bill of a baseball cap to that point. She should have noticed. She should have seen the signs.

Leia got her first good look at his face and sighed. "Shit."

* * *

Kay leaned back in her desk chair, stretching her back. Her arm brushed the chest of the man standing behind her and she bent her elbow so she could run her fingers down Poe's cheek. He grinned at her, quirking an eyebrow quickly before returning his gaze to the screen. Paperwork was Kay's least favorite part of the job, but every mission had a brief and debrief each with its own mountain of the stuff. All Kay wanted was to get on a boat.

"Soon," Poe whispered, leaning down to kiss her cheek. "We'll get out of here soon."

She grumbled, but went back to her task. The din of The Pit had long become white noise to her. There were always at least four or five active ops going at any time and recently it felt like twice that many. They were all being stretched to the breaking point and if the old dogs could be believed, this was only the beginning of the Hutt War.

"Coffee?" Poe asked.

She nodded, diving into the language of her summary. Poe made a pit stop at Rey's desk before disappearing into the gallery. It was real sweet the way Poe always checked in on Rey, making sure the new kid adjusted to the difficult job and the twice as difficult Agent that came with it.

Kay twirled a pen between her fingers as she worked. Tapping it against her cheek, tucking it between her teeth. The inspiration struck and she shoved the pen into one of her buns and dipped back over the keyboard. By the time Poe got back with the coffee she was done.

"Give it a once over," she said, sliding out of her seat. "Let me know if I need to fix anything."

He gave her the mug and took the open spot in front of the computer. Leia came through the gallery while Poe was reviewing it, Amilyn trailing behind her like a lovesick puppy.

"Dameron," Leia called, barely slowing as she shouted into The Pit.

His head popped up.

"My office, before you leave."

He threw a thumbs up in the air before swiveling back to the terminal.

Amilyn stooped to Leia's ear again as they turned the corner into the north side hall, whispering like teenagers. Those two needed to fuck and get it over with. It was depressing. Amilyn pining for Leia. Leia pining for Han. Kay turned toward the desk next to hers. There were only two people worse. The tension between Ben and Rey was nearly tangible and their ops were turning into spectacles. It was honestly stupid that Rey hadn't climbed the mountain. Anyone with eyes could see that Ben would love nothing more than to ride her from sun down to sun up. Kay hadn't quite figured out what Rey's resistance was, but it was only a matter of time.

Rey looked up then. She had a supernatural sense for being watched. It would probably save her ass once she went into fieldwork. Kay waved and turned back to Poe.

"Looks good," Poe said. "Send it out, I'll go deal with the wonder twins. I want to be in open waters by sunset."

"Yes, sir." She saluted him. He winked and ran up the steps. With a crack of her knuckles she dipped over the keyboard once more. The sea was calling her.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHANGE THE POST DATE TO Sept 25.

"Come!" Leia called.

Poe peeked his head in. It was weird being in Leia's office. She never took meetings there, it was like her sacred space. In his experience, there were only two reasons Leia held court away from The Pit: it was personal or it was extra, special, super-secret, classified. He was hoping for the latter. Personal always meant messy.

Leia and Amilyn were on the far side of the room at Leia's desk. The sitting area by the door was a mess, food covered the coffee table indicating that they'd taken their daily lunch meeting and planning session. He could also see two pairs of shoes discarded under the table. There were perfectly good chairs around it but they liked to sit on the floor. Something about Amilyn and Gatalentan customs. He'd never actually been to Gatalenta so he had no idea if they sat on the floor for meals or if that was just an Amilyn-ism. She was weird like that. Weird in a good way, but still weird.

"What can I do for you lovely ladies this afternoon?" Poe asked, dropping into a seat opposite Leia.

Leia looked over her shoulder at Amilyn and nodded. Amilyn, with her ever-present tablet, began tapping away. The blinds all shut, the windows darkened and Poe felt that uncomfortable pressure change that came with a lockdown.

_Well that answers that question,_ he thought.

Leia skipped the foreplay. "What do you know about the DS-1 Orbital Battle Station?"

The name rang a bell.

"The Death Star," she clarified.

Poe whistled. "Not much. Lot a rumors. I remember the fear."

He thought back to his first couple of years in the Alliance, before he was an Agent. It was on the tail end of the war and everyone was talking about it. First, it was a race to stop the Emperor from building it. Then to stop him from finishing it. Then to stop him from launching it into space. No one was ever really certain it was real though.

"Everyone had a different story. Some guys thought it was a myth, psychological warfare. It couldn't be built. It was impossible. Others thought it was a planet killer, that it would crack the Earth open like an egg. Some say it was never finished. Some say it's the reason for that crater where Jedah City used to be. I don't really know."

Leia nodded at Amilyn again and the room darkened. A hologram projected into the middle of the room and all of them moved to gather around it. Amilyn cleared her throat, assumed her teacher voice, and began to explain the sphere they were looking at.

"DS-1 OBS was the master file name for a series of unrelated experiments in satellite, missile and laser technologies conducted throughout the Cold War. Palpatine wanted to build the biggest weapon the world would never see. The best way to do that without attracting attention was to build it in pieces. The Empire had people in every government around the world, and by the time the Berlin Wall fell, he had everything he needed. Over the next decade the Empire used a series of under the radar launches and built their space station slowly. No one noticed. Anyone who did, disappeared."

"So he built it? It was real?"

"Unfortunately," Leia admitted. "It did more than put a hole in the middle of Jedah. It wasn't an earthquake that destroyed Alderaan."

"Jesus." Poe crossed his arms over his chest. That was the crazy thing about his job. There were days when he thought he understood the world, knew how things were and in seconds it could all change. "We destroyed it, though?"

Leia shook her head. "It's still up there." She frowned at the hologram. "Intel tells us that in the months before his death Palpatine became more and more suspicious of everyone and everything. He was in his eighties at that point. A few of our sources say his mind was going. That he was starting to believe in his own cult of personality. He thought he had magic powers, that he could see the future, sense the intentions of the people around him. He did something to the satellite that made it impossible to get into."

Poe held a finger up. "So there's a been a giant death satellite in orbit for the last decade or so and we haven't destroyed it?"

"We can't," Amilyn explained. "We've tried hacking it with everything we have. Sent manned missions up there with the help of some of the world's governments. It can't be entered, physically or digitally. We can't blow it up either. The debris storm would wreak havoc on the planet. We've tried to push it out of orbit, it realigns. Scientists anticipate that in another fifty years, without regular maintenance, systems will start malfunctioning. Our best hope was to leave it be and keep our eyes open for a chance to get rid of it."

"I'm assuming that's no longer an option. Something to do with the information my new friend gave us."

Amilyn tapped at her screen and two faces shimmered into the dark room, replacing the Death Star. "Galen Walton Erso was a Danish scientist and Imperial insider working for the USSR during the Cold War. His research into lasers and specifically, crystals, formed the foundation of the Death Star's primary weapon. After the Cold War he defected to the US and in the mid-nineties, when he realized that Palpatine's interests in lasers weren't _defensive_, he began feeding intelligence to our organization. He had no desire to see that weapon in the world, primarily because of his daughter."

Poe stared up at the woman on the screen. She looked about his age and the image from Wobani had a recent time stamp.

"Two years before Palpatine's death, Erso and his family went missing. We found his wife a few months later. Dead on a farm in Nicaragua. We are aware that for a time his daughter, Jyn, was running with Saw Gerrera and the Partisans, but she disappeared when she was sixteen. Declared dead, though that doesn't seem to be the case. The documents you were sent to recover in Iran indicated that Galen might still be alive. We wanted to find him before the First Order could figure that out. It seems we may be too late."

"They have Erso?" Poe asked.

"We don't think so. Hit the lights, Ams." Leia went back to her chair as the lights came back up slowly. "Two months ago I sent Cassian Andor to find Galen Erso. Last week he met with an informant inside the Partisans who gave us information on Jyn, aliases, skills, a full work-up. We had a file on her, we just didn't know she was Erso's daughter. During the handoff Cassian was attacked by a group of former Imperials. He got away clean with the intel, but there's another wrinkle."

Poe smiled brightly, leaning over the back of an empty chair. "I love wrinkles. You could say they're my specialty."

"Then you're going to love this," Amilyn chuckled.

Leia gave her an annoyed, sideways glance and kept going. "Your _new friend_ FN-2187. We've already negotiated Jyn Erso's release. FN-2187 will be escorting her on her journey. She doesn't know Cassian, but she knows your friend. I need you to help convince the Stormtrooper—"

"_Former_ Stormtrooper," Poe corrected.

"That remains to be seen," Leia countered.

"You've been up his ass for months. You haven't found anything."

Poe noted the way Leia averted her eyes for a split second. A quick glance to the only photograph she kept on her desk, the one of Han and Ben when Ben was a kid. It was one of the few tells Leia still had. She'd found _something_, she just wasn't sharing it yet.

"Convince them we're friendlies. We need Erso to help us look for her father. If your _friend_ plays ball, maybe we'll trust him."

"That's it? You want me to make an introduction?" Poe's head pivoted back and forth between the woman behind the desk and the one standing next to it.

Leia sighed, canting her head in Amilyn's direction.

"I told you," Amilyn chimed. "Let him go. It'll be good for him."

Leia pretended to consider it. He knew she was pretending because he knew these ladies. Amilyn had already given all the reasons why letting him out of the house was good for his morale, and his psychology, and his complexion.

"You're going in dark," Leia said. "Everything funnels through Artie."

"Yes!" He ran around the desk, planting a big old kiss on Leia's cheek. "You're the best boss ever." On his way back around he gave Amilyn a bear hug. She'd earned it. Kay wasn't going to like being left out of this one, but he could sweet talk her off the ledge. He was going to see Artie, which meant he was going to visit his number one girl. "When do I start?"

* * *

"And I have your word this will be the last one?" Rey asked, more firmly than she ought to.

"Promise," Amilyn replied, leaning back in her chair. The white walls of her office were hidden behind a collage of paintings, sketches, pictures, and postcards. They brought color and movement to an otherwise sterile environment.

Rey usually enjoyed her visits to Amilyn's office. Not this time. She was in a foul mood. Lack of sleep was weighing on her. "You're sure? Because you've said that before and—"

"Three in a row is excessive. We wouldn't have sent Ben if anyone else was available. The issue is time sensitive. The deal is supposed to go down at the end of this week and we need someone on the ground ASAP." Amilyn leaned in, smiling warmly. "As soon as we have our intel we'll bring him home. You have my word."

Rey nodded. It was the best she was going to get. Ben's biometrics were out of control. He shouldn't have been cleared for a second mission, let alone a third without a rest period, but they were in the middle of a war. Everyone was running ragged.

Amilyn pulled her tablet up and started scanning the requisitions for their Vancouver mission. It was all pretty standard fare. Weapons and aliases with the usually supporting accoutrement. Amilyn frowned, which was unusual.

"You're requesting a hundred milliliters of Ben's sleep serum." Amilyn began tapping away at her screen, her frown deepening. "He walked into his first assignment with a hundred fifty mils."

"Yes," Rey said coolly.

Amilyn noted the chill in Rey's voice and looked up. "How much does he have on him?"

"Twenty mils. Two vials."

"How?" Amilyn was shaking her head, scanning her tablet in a frenzy.

"His dosage has increased to ten milliliters and the last few weeks he's been going through two doses a night. When was the last time you spoke to Dr. Kalonia?"

Amilyn pinched her lip between her thumb and index finger. "It's been a few weeks."

"Five mils wasn't working. The doctor thinks he's built up a tolerance to it. She recommended we start giving him ten a night. No more than twenty in a in a twelve hour period."

"That's a problem." Amilyn dumped her tablet on the table and Rey was very aware of how stressed she was in that moment. "The Hutt war has put a strain on certain supply lines. There's an excipient in Ben's drugs, a stabilizer that's been hard to find. The formula is proprietary so we're being careful who we get it from. We can't fill this order. We've already cleared out Jedah and Mon Cala of their stores. I sent half to him and the other half is on its way here."

"How much?"

"Two hundred milliliters."

Rey rubbed her hand against her forehead. "That won't last two weeks."

"It should have lasted over a month." Amilyn's eyes were darting around the room, searching for answers only she could see.

"Well, it won't," Rey scowled. "He's running too hard on not enough sleep. Even with the drugs his sleeping is shallow, erratic and the…" She shook her head. "I'm not sure he should be doing field work right now. You're running out of rope on the drugs. They won't work forever and his _condition_ is not improving." She spat the 'condition' because that's what they called it.

"I know that you're worried about him. We're doing everything we can to help him with his condition."

Rey sighed, the weariness of the last two months seeping into her bones. "Twenty mils isn't going to last the night. Two hundred will be gone before the next time you send him out and mark my words, by the end of the year your miracle drug will stop working. You want to help him? Stop trying to put him to sleep and start talking to him. That's the only way he's going to recover."

Amilyn was one of the people Rey liked most in the Resistance. She carried herself with an unflinching strength that was both hard and soft at the same time. It was a balance Rey had never learned and admired very much in her superior. It pained her to see the haunted look in Amilyn's eye, but Rey was too tired and too angry to care about having hurt anyone's feelings. They purported to give a damn about Ben, yet all they ever seemed to do was pump him full of drugs and send him into danger. Wash, rinse, repeat.

"Was there anything else you needed from me or may I return to my desk? I have a mission to prepare for and you know how he gets when everything isn't exactly the way he wants it."

"Thank you, Johnson."

Rey nodded once before returning to her desk. Something was going to break soon. She was starting to wonder if it would be her.

* * *

Leia stood at her perch in the gallery, the Pit spreading out below her, its workers scurrying around in the throes of their work. Amilyn arrived at her arm a moment later, gift bag in hand. It said 'Happy Birthday' in festive lettering with balloons and confetti flying around against a white backdrop.

"Is it her birthday?" Leia asked.

"It was the only thing I could find." Amilyn shrugged. "We don't exactly have a Hallmark store on the island."

Leia rolled her eyes, chuckling as she took the bag. "You recording?"

Amilyn nodded.

Leia peered into the camera on Amilyn's tablet. "This one's for you, kiddo." Together she and Amilyn made their way around the gallery and down into the first level, stopping at Rey's desk.

"I recognize that you _requested_ the charcoal suit, but it's full of _holes_," Rey hissed into her headset. "You'll be just fine in black."

Leia couldn't hear her son's response, but given Rey's reaction it was probably lewd.

Rey noticed them standing in the aisle and the bag in Leia's hand. "Hold on. Your mother is here. It's not your birthday, is it? I thought that was in November?" Rey paused. "Wait, what? Ben?" She growled and pulled off her headset. "Yes, ma'am?"

"A gift for you." Leia replied, placing the bag on Rey's desk. She stepped aside a couple of inches so Amilyn had a clear view.

That's when Rey caught the way Amilyn was holding her tablet. "It's not my birthday."

"It was the only bag I could find," Amilyn replied.

"Are you recording this?" Rey asked.

Leia noted the girls skeptical smile. "Open it."

With a cocked eyebrow and an exaggerated sigh, Rey stood to peer into the bag. She moved aside a leaf of tissue paper and froze, shaking her head furiously. "No."

"Go on, Johnson," Leia urged.

All the mirth was gone. Rey met Leia's eye, glanced at the camera then back at Leia. "No."

"Open it or I'll let Connix do it," Leia said calmly.

"If this is some weird sex thing I want no part in it," Kay called from the desk behind Rey.

"See, she wants no part in it. Open it." Leia repeated.

Rey stared down at the bag like it was a poisonous snake. She'd made this bed. She could let it strangle her like a vine or take control of the narrative. Uncertainty played across Rey's face. She looked around the room, taking stock of every pair of eyes on her as she had the night this whole mess started. It was symmetry, great theater. The perfect cherry on top of this story. Leia was proud of her for rising to the occasion, but the girl looked ready to falter.

_Don't let it get to you, _Leia thought. _Step up. Own it._

With a clipped nod Rey made her choice, reached into the bag and unfurled the object with a theatrical swish. The brown and tan mottled fabric caught the light just in time for Kay to throw her head back in laughter. Rey was smiling too, running her thumbs along the fabric of her brand new, giraffe print snuggie. The exact one she'd sent a picture of to Ben three days before. She shook her head and pulled her arms through the sleeves.

"Excuse me ladies," Rey said, pushing past them into the aisle and up to the gallery.

Rey did a walk around, waving like royalty and curtseying for the crowd. In every tier people laughed, clapped and catcalled as she passed. By the time she got back to her desk she was grinning from ear to ear. The whole room was under her spell. She barely glanced at Leia and Amilyn before sitting back at her desk, snuggie still draped across her.

"So what do you think of your gift?" Leia asked.

Rey cocked an eyebrow, glanced at the camera with a pinch-lipped smile and returned to her work muttering under her breath, "Four more months."

* * *

"Four more months," Ben whispered into his empty hotel room.

He played the video again, taking great joy in the part where she paraded around the gallery like a fucking queen. His mother must have loved that. Her curtsey could use work but she had the royal wave down perfectly. When the video came to an end for the fourth time he tossed the phone onto the bed next to him.

Her smile was telling, but her muttering was even more so.

_Four more months._

The first two had flown by at the speed of light. He couldn't remember the last time his life moved so quickly. For over a decade every day seemed to crawl by. The only bright spots were his first few months as an Agent. Everything was fun, exciting, new – the shiny veneer hadn't yet worn away. By month two with Kay, they were both over it. Two months on with Rey in his ear and he'd laughed so hard he'd nearly blown a mission. Funny thing was, he wasn't even angry about it.

He was thrilled. He hadn't laughed that hard since he was a child. Of course, Rey was prepared with a backup plan to their backup plan. He'd never even second guessed it. Somewhere in his mind he knew she'd be prepared for anything, even his own screw up. It only took seven seconds for him to get out of the server room and she knew that. The guards would all flock to the south entrance, so she sent him north. The alarms would pull everyone's attention, freeing the perimeter for him to escape the complex and she'd moved his vehicle to intercept.

Rey was good. Very, very good. She'd proved herself every day from the first day in Tehran, really from her first day on the job, and Ben was starting to trust her. _Really_ trust her. He couldn't even say that about his own mother. Leia always had a hidden agenda, but Rey had been up front with him about hers. This was about the job waiting on the other end. Everything she'd done was to get to her goal, including take complete responsibility for him.

_Four more months._

She'd done her job too well. The more he let himself linger on the thought of her leaving again, the more he realized that Caluan was going to have some big shoes to fill.

* * *

Poe chuckled to himself as he sat in a stolen car, descending on a hydraulic platform into a subterranean bunker below an abandoned Soviet detention center in the ass end of Russia. Artie had always been fond of the theatrics. He cut his teeth during the Cold War and got off on the spy shit. Something about being a begrudging citizen of the Crown that made him love everything James Bond, especially the gadgets.

A bright light pierced the edges of Poe's vision and grew, temporarily blinding him. Before his sight could fully adjust the descent stopped.

"Please remain in your vehicle whilst it is in motion," came a heavy Glaswegian patter as the car moved forward along a track. "We appreciate your patience as we clear the runway. The remainder of your party's _en route._ They'll be arriving within the next ten minutes. Your departure time is slated for twenty one forty five. Gather all your belongings and proceed to the designated fuck off zone. We are not responsible for any items lost or stolen. As a savvy consumer we know you have options. Thank you for choosing to abscond with us today."

The car stopped, the last of Poe's vision returning. The underground facility was as pristine as any Alliance base. Vehicles, on the left, armaments and technology laid out around the massive floorspace in clusters. An older man who looked like he'd stepped off the front page of an eighties punk fan-zine jumped off a platform in the center of the room littered with computers. His hair was gelled into tall blue and silver spikes on his head, he had at least half a dozen piercings in his face and twice as many up either ear. The chain at his hip jingled as he walked.

"Artie!" Poe threw the door open and held his arms out wide. "How the hell are you?"

"Poe, you silly bastard. It's been a dog's age. Glad you could convince the old bag to let you come out and play with real men." Artie hugged him, patting his back hard. For a tiny man he had a hell of a grip.

"Where is she?"

Artie pointed behind Poe just in time for a body to collide with him at speed.

"Poepoe!" the girl on his hip squealed, squeezing the life out of him.

"Hey Beebee." He glanced under his arm and his jaw dropped. "Holy shit, let me look at you."

The girl stepped back, well, rolled back on her wheeled sneakers. She put her hands on her hips and bobbed her copper tresses side to side. Poe couldn't believe what he was seeing. She wasn't a roly poly little girl anymore. She'd shot up nearly a foot since the last time he'd seen her. Her face was thinner, her torso longer, she was even sprouting boobs, which scared the crap out of him in ways he could not begin to wrap his mind around. He whirled on Artie.

"What the fuck? Who is this and what have you done with my Bee?"

Artie snorted. "She grew. Kids do that sort of thing."

Bee slammed into him again and he wrapped his arms around her. "You need to stop doing that."

Bee blew him a raspberry. "Where are my presents?"

"Typical." Poe rolled his eyes. "Women always want something from you."

"You spoil her," Artie corrected. "Do you have any idea how much her appetite has cost this organization?"

Poe chuckled, slinging his bag onto the nearest table. "Don't know. Don't care. Come on, Beebee."

She rolled up next to him, hopping onto a stainless steel table. Her dark eyes ringed in dark lashes peered into the half opened bag. Poe reached in and retrieved the first item.

"From Japan, your favorite—"

"Prawn crackers!" She plucked them from his grip and immediately opened one of the bags, munching away merrily.

"Oh god save us," Artie moaned. "How can you eat that crap? It doesn't taste like anything." An alarm went off at one of Artie's many computers. He darted toward it. "That'll be Cass."

When he was out of earshot Poe leaned down to Bee, and she edged closer. "Ignore him. He's just old and crotchety."

She kicked her feet and giggled. There was no sound more joyous than the sound of Bee's giggles. He prayed she never grew out of them.

"Let's see. What else? What else?" He fished in the bag for the next treat. "From the good ole U S of A..." he whipped out two boxes. "Ding Dongs and Snoballs. And last, but certainly not least, courtesy of the Queen herself."

Bee threw up an English salute, hand flat against her forehead, palm out. She began humming God Save the Queen as Poe retrieved not one, but two bags of chocolate covered Digestive Biscuits.

"Now, you have to share these with Artie." He ignored her trembling lower lip. "No arguments. He deserves at least one biscuit per package."

Bee giggled manically then, all at once, the veneer of childish enthusiasm fell away. She smiled at him with eyes that knew more than they should for thirteen. "I missed you, Poe Dameron."

He pulled her in for a hug. "I missed you too, Beatrice Bellamy-Octavius."

"Bleh, don't me call me that."

"Do me a favor, stop growing up so fast?"

She pinched his side. "How about you not wait so long to come visit?"

The sound of the hydraulic lift filled the air. More party guests were arriving.

"Bee!" Artie snapped.

"On it!" she called back. "Gotta earn my snack money." With a wink, she hopped off the table and rolled her way to the weapons and artillery.

The lift through which Poe had arrived descended a second time. Trapped inside the ugliest panel van in creation, he spotted Cassian and his partner Kato. Artie's practiced speech blared through the house speakers as the vehicle slid toward them.

"I almost didn't believe it." Cassian stepped out of the van, a wide smile on his face. "But here you are."

Poe extended his hand, clapping Cassian on the shoulder as they shook. "It's been years. Glad you're still alive."

"You too." Cassian's gaze darted toward the platform. "Artie."

Poe never considered himself a short man, but when standing next to Kato he felt tiny.

"It's rude to stare," Kato said automatically.

"How tall are you anyway?"

"Six feet, eleven and three quarter inches."

Poe pursed his lips. "Wouldn't it just be easier to say seven feet?"

"I'm sure it would be." Kato nodded once and wandered off.

"Hey Cass! Hey Kato!" Bee rolled back to the group, hefting a black duffle. "Your order."

"Thank you, Beatrice," Kato replied.

_"No puede ser."_ Cassian gawked at Artie. "Little Bee?"

"Not so little anymore," she replied, bobbing her head.

"I know right?" Poe added.

"Alright, enough," Artie thrust a thumb over his shoulder. "Go get your boyfriend. We have a schedule to keep."

Bee's cheeks pinked. "He's not my boyfriend," she muttered and rolled away.

Poe cocked an eyebrow.

"Keep your knickers on Dameron, it's a joke. The boy's seventeen. He looks at her and sees a wee lass."

"Yeah? For how much longer?"

"Not my problem," Artie clicked his teeth. "There's a reason I didn't have kids."

"Because the concept of sex disturbs you?" Cassian offered.

"It doesn't fucking disturb me," Artie corrected. "I just don't see the point of it. It's messy. You're getting fluids everywhere. I'm old enough to remember the eighties. No good comes of it."

"I wouldn't say that," came a husky voice from down the hall. A dark skinned black woman stepped out from the spot where Bee disappeared. Even hidden away under a flight suit Poe could see all her curves. Two thick braids of hair interwoven with green the exact shade of her eyes trailed down her back, whipping behind her as she walked.

"Hera," Cassian nodded in her direction.

"Cassian, Kato." Her eyes sparkled when they fell on Poe. "And you must be the infamous Poe Dameron."

"Infamous, huh?"

"Bee doesn't stop talking about you." Hera extended a hand. "Hera Syndulla. I'll be your transportation."

"Pleased to meet you." Poe took her hand, kissing it gently.

"That was pointless," Kato said flatly.

Cassian chuckled.

Artie clapped loudly, stealing everyone's attention. "Yes, yes, we're all a bunch of fucking hormone monsters. Except Kato. You're not even human."

"Thank you," Kato replied.

Artie rolled his eyes. "All of you, get the fuck out of my bunker. Find me a mad scientist so we can all sleep better tonight."

"If you gentlemen will follow me." Hera motioned the way she'd come. "My chariot awaits."


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm freezing my balls off up here," Ben scowled.

"Suck it up," Rey said, sipping her coffee.

"Easy for you to say, you're warm."

"I'm also exhausted and on my fifth cup of coffee. The sooner you get the intel, the sooner you can come home and we can both get some damn sleep."

Rey looked at the time. It was after four in the morning for Ben in Vancouver and after eight in the evening for her. They were both running on fumes and while Ben pretended with all his might to manage it, Rey wasn't interested in hiding the fact that she was fraying at the edges.

"Any progress on whatever the fuck happened on Tuesday?" Ben muttered into the mic.

Rey could hear his teeth chattering. That wasn't good. She checked his vitals. He wasn't in danger so far, but his existing health issues made the exposure slightly more tense than it needed to be.

"Nothing," she growled. "It's like they magically knew you were lying. No unusual contacts. No ties back to us or any other organization that could have tipped them off. We've done wiretaps, cell phone break-ins. I've got trenchlings reading the emails and scouring the browsing history of every member of the Ziro's cartel. Spoiler alert, there's a lot of porn."

Ben snorted. "You'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

She tried to ignore the dig but couldn't quite manage it with her soft snuggie wrapped around her. Instead, she watched through his optics as he adjusted the zoom on his telephoto camera. The windy roof sent a strand of his dark hair flying into his eye and he tucked it back under his knit cap.

"Where are your gloves?" she snapped.

"In my pocket. They make it difficult to operate the camera."

"Put your damn gloves on."

"I will if I need to."

"Your balls are freezing but your hands are fine?" Rey shrugged, he couldn't see it, but he'd know. "You know what? Don't put your gloves on. Lose a couple of fingers. Then you can be my handler and I'll make your life as miserable as you've made mine."

"That sounds like a challenge, Johnson. You sure you want to do that?"

An alert flashed on Rey's second screen. Entry notification at Ben's hotel room. The men tearing the place apart were Black Sun. It couldn't be happening again. There was no way in hell they'd blown two aliases in one operation. She quickly checked local surveillance around Ben's location to find more Black Sun on the ground.

"Ben, get the fuck out of there, right now."

He didn't question her, just packed up the camera, tossed it roughly into his bag and made for the stairwell.

"Exit on the eighty seventh floor. There's a cubicle farm to your right. Walk through it to the far end. A hall on your left will lead you into the executive offices." She saw through Ben's optics he was flying down the stairs, passing the ninety third floor. "Straight through to the office on the end. The CEO has a private elevator to the garage."

Ben remained silent until he pushed through the door on the eighty seventh floor. "What the fuck is going on?"

"Ziro's men entered your hotel room four minutes ago. There are more of them downstairs."

"Again?" he seethed. He reached the end of the cubicle farm and turned right.

"Left, Ben," Rey said.

He made an about face and she watched his heartbeat speed up a fraction. He was definitely tired if he was making small mistakes like that. She set about sending the elevator up to his level so he wouldn't have to wait for it. Scanning through the garage she found a series of very lovely looking sports cars parked in the reserved spaces near the elevator exit. She hacked the Wi-Fi to see if she could access any of them. To her great delight the Tesla was available.

"I've got good news," she said as he stepped into the elevator.

"Actual good news or sarcastic good news?"

"How would you classify a Tesla Roadster?"

"Silver lining," Ben replied, the first hints of relief in his voice.

"Two men just came out on the roof. The others are spreading out through the building now. There are people at the exit of the garage. They're going to let you come to them."

"Let's see if they can catch me."

"Garage is clear," Rey added before the elevator stopped.

Ben stepped out into the parking structure and immediately scanned the room taking in every exit, ambush point, vehicle and light fixture. When he was certain the space was clear, he stepped up to the Roadster. The engine was already warm for him, though completely silent. He hesitated, sniffing the air.

"What is it?" It was the one thing Rey couldn't do for him. Only he could take in the direct sensory information in the environment.

"Strong cologne," he whispered. "Someone was here recently. Sweating." He stepped back from the vehicle scanning it. When nothing obvious jumped out at him he lay on the ground. Underneath it he saw the tiny device rigged to a gap in the undercarriage. "You seeing this?"

"I am," she replied.

"Think you can set it off remotely?"

"You'd have to leave your phone."

"Not great, but I'll take it. I have a plan."

* * *

Ben situated himself at the far end of the service exit. The red dots in his HUD were clustered around various exits along the floor plan.

"Zoom me in to a twelve foot radius," he whispered. A second later his view narrowed. He trotted to a closet and hid inside. "In position. Do it."

He could feel the explosion rock the building. The car bomb meant for him had just turned that gorgeous machine into a pile of rent scrap metal. Someone was setting him up. Someone who knew he'd be on that roof. Knew he'd try to run without a fight. Knew he'd use the executive elevator. Knew the Tesla would be the easiest vehicle to hack. It was the sole explanation for why the Tesla was the only vehicle with a bomb under it.

The dots in his vision began to move as Rey walked him through the rest of the action.

"Everyone is converging on the vehicle's location. Let them pass. Do not engage."

Ben had no intention of engaging. He waited for them to get past the closet and as soon as they were clear, he slipped into the hall behind them and took both men out. A single bullet to the back of each head. Neither of them had time to react.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rey seethed. "I said do not engage."

"And I ignored you," Ben replied, dipping over the first man and rifling through his pockets. "I'm not walking away from here with nothing." He pulled the wallet and cell phone out of the first man's pocket then did the same for the second.

"You're wasting time. Get out of there," she screeched in his ear.

There was still a red dot nearby letting Ben know there was one man outside. He kept his eye on the dot outside the door as he pulled the batteries out of the two phones. They clattered on the floor where he'd discarded them.

"Do you have a visual?" Ben asked.

"Yes. He's getting the call now that you weren't in the car." There went that plan. "And emergency services have been called. Police and fire _en route_. Get the fuck out of there, Ben."

"On it," he grumbled. "Spot me." He knocked on the closed door – shave and a haircut – then waited, hand on the release bar.

"Now!"

Ben shoved the door as hard as he could and felt it make contact with the body on the other side. It stopped short of hitting the wall. He had a split second to slip past it, firing into the dark mass before he could get a good look. He hit the target center mass as his eye found the head and took two more shots for safety. The last red dot disappeared from his HUD.

"You've got about a dozen more headed in your direction. Cross the street and head southeast toward the airfield."

Ben trotted across the street, hiding his firearm beneath his coat as he went. "If they knew we were here, they might know about the airfield."

"Point taken. Keep walking. I have an idea."

It was one of the things he appreciated about Rey. She didn't argue with him when there was a problem, she just found a way to solve it. After a few minutes and lots of frustrated noises, but no useful words, he felt it was time to prod his handler. "Give me something."

"There's a twenty-four hour Tim Horton's a few more blocks up the road."

"Mmm. Timbits."

"Please tell me you have a passport on your person."

"Always."

He heard her clap her hands. "Good. Get your Timbits. I'm calling you a cab. There's a train leaving in an hour and a half heading to Seattle. I'll fly you commercial to Florida. Mon Cala will pick you up from there. No one will expect it."

Ben groaned. He hated flying commercial. He always felt exposed. It was annoying, crowded, and he couldn't bring his gun. "It better be a first class ticket." he grumbled.

"It will be."

* * *

A slew of obscenities came streaming out of the overhead speakers, filling the passenger compartment of the airplane.

"He's a Stormtrooper," Cassian hissed.

Artie leaned into the camera, his weathered face filling the display screen at the rear. "_Former_ Stormtrooper."

"ETA five minutes," Kato added.

Both men glanced at Kato where he sat by the entrance to the cockpit.

"Cass." Artie sighed, shaking his head. "Cass, Cass, Cass. You remember how we won, don't you? It wasn't us. It was when the Empire's own people turned. That's how we won. Without Rath Veelus we never would have rounded them up so quickly. Your friend Kallus, who stayed on the inside for years, at great personal risk. If not for him we'd never have taken out the Rens. Did you doubt _his_ loyalty?"

"For years," Cassian said without hesitation. Kallus had turned out to be an invaluable resource and unflinchingly loyal, but Cassian's trust had taken a long time to earn. "Just because he told a good story doesn't mean I'm going to believe he's reformed. The best lies are based in the truth."

"He didn't have to give us his blood, that was a choice. It did more than confirm he was FN-2187, it helped us confirm that he was born Gerald Carver. He had a family he never knew, a family he went out of his way to find after the war was over. Those aren't the actions of an Imperial loyalist."

Cassian crossed his arms over his chest. "I don't like it. I got nowhere for months and no one fucked with me but the second I got evidence about Jyn's location, I'm attacked by First Order and find out a former Imperial has been with her for weeks." Cassian held up three fingers. "Three's conspiracy."

"Think about it Cassian! _If_ he's involved, _if_ he's still loyal we need him close so he doesn't go running to his friends. If not, he could be an asset to this mission."

"I don't trust him."

"I'm not asking you to trust him!" Artie threw his hands up. "Fuck. You've each got a role to play. You and Kato focus on convincing the girl that it's in everyone's best interest she help us. Let Poe worry about FN-2187. While you're at it, let Hera and Jacen worry about flying the bloody plane. Do your job and soon enough we'll all be out of your hair."

"The prisoner transport has arrived at the gate," Kato interjected.

"Get your arse out there, Cass. Don't get killed and if you wouldn't mind, make sure Dameron doesn't either. He's got promises to keep."

Cassian nodded, glancing over his shoulder at Kato. No more words were needed. Kato cut the feed.

"Would you like to know the likelihood that they will betray us?" Kato asked.

"No," Cassian replied, moving through the cabin toward the exit.

"It was statistically significant for either of them independently, but combined…"

"I said no." Cassian pushed the door open, the metal ladder down the tarmac rattled slightly against the plane.

"It's high. It's very high," Kato concluded.

With a heavy sigh, Cassian stepped out into the chilly morning. Poe was at the bottom of the ladder waiting. They were both in suits. Cassian hated wearing a suit, conversely, Poe wore it like he was born in one. Cassian could barely make out the outline of the shoulder holster or the knife at the small of Poe's back.

"Aren't you cold?" Cassian asked when he reached the bottom. He practically had to shout over the engines.

"A little, but I prefer mobility." Poe's head made a gradual sweep of the perimeter, finding the black SUV pulling toward them. "What'd Artie say?"

"Nothing I liked."

Poe shrugged. "Divide and conquer, then. Let me worry about Carver, you deal with Erso."

"That was it."

Poe smiled. The SUV slowed to a stop several feet from the plane. Prison guards spilled out from all but the driver's door. Three from the rear, one from the passenger seat. Cassian scanned each of their faces. Data appeared on his optics, giving him basic readouts from the prison's human resources files. The Stormtrooper came up red. A hostile. They pulled Jyn Erso out of the back of the vehicle. Her wrists and ankles were bound with a chain that linked them together. The Stormtrooper took her arm, leading her toward the vehicle.

"Prisoner for transfer: McVee, Nari. I'm Officer Puhvel." The Stormtrooper said in heavily accented English.

"My orders say you'll be escorting her to the US?" Poe replied, affecting an American Southern twang.

The Stormtrooper nodded. Erso kept her head down but Cassian caught the hint of a smile on her face. She knew this was all staged.

Poe clapped his hands together. "Sounds good to me. This way." He ascended the steps.

The Stormtrooper lead Erso up after him. Cassian waited, watching the remaining guards pile back into their SUV. Everyone was on the plane before the vehicle departed. He watched it leave, pulling around the hangar and out of sight before he climbed the steps. He entered the cabin just in time to hear the end of Hera's announcement that they would be departing as soon as the crew cleared the runway.

A tense silence hung over the cabin. Jyn was seated on a bench about halfway down, her restraints locked into a bolt on the floor. Her fake guard sat on her left. Poe sat across from them. They were almost there. They just had to get to cruising altitude and they could begin.

* * *

Amilyn sagged in her chair, staring up at the pictures and posters that littered her office walls. Even they were no comfort. She didn't need any more bad news, but that's all that seemed to be going around. "So we've hit another dead end?"

"Unfortunately," Conder replied, shrugging on her computer screen. "We're in their system, but we're only scratching the surface. Account data is still too heavily encrypted to breach from the outside. Artie agrees. We need to attack this from the inside out."

"So we need an account holder?"

Conder nodded. "Based on what we have been able to acquire, we've come up with a list of possible marks. If we can access their account information and login with their credentials, it might be the leg up we need."

"Wouldn't that make us more visible?"

"Possibly, but it's worth the risk."

Amilyn took a deep breath and nodded sorting through personnel files in her head. "Alright, coordinate with Connix. She'll dig through and find us a suitable mark."

"You got it, boss." Conder winked and his image disappeared from her screen.

* * *

The second Jyn's manacles came free, she reached for the Stormtrooper's face.

"Let me have a look at you," she said, gripping his chin and turning his face side to side. "No. You don't look like a Gerald to me."

She had a Londoner accent, which made no sense to Cassian because there was nothing in her file about spending any significant amount of time in London.

Poe leaned across the open space between them. "Finn, huh? Bit on the nose isn't it?"

The Stormtrooper shrugged, having dropped the Estonian accent for a clean Hollywood American that couldn't be easily placed. "It's a name."

"I wouldn't have chosen it," Poe muttered.

"I like it," Jyn nodded.

The Stormtrooper, Finn, smiled. "Almost forgot!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a crystal pendant on the edge of a leather chord. Cassian could see etchings along the outside of the milky white stone but couldn't make them out at that distance. Jyn tied the necklace on and tucked it into her shirt. They'd given her a chance to change into street clothes, hoping that she would be more comfortable and so more likely to play ball.

"And your name?" Cassian asked.

"Which one?" Jyn asked, turning to her friend. "You never did tell me what they wanted."

Finn shrugged. "I never knew. A way out's a way out, right?"

"We know who she is," Poe said.

"Who she is?" Finn asked, turning to Jyn.

"Hang on," Cassian interjected, not liking where this was going.

"Beats me," Jyn replied.

"I thought we weren't lying to each other, _Finn,_" Poe hissed.

"Hello?" Cassian tried again.

"I haven't lied to you yet," Finn replied. "You reached out to me remember? We were minding our own business."

Poe snorted. "And it's a coincidence that you just happened to be guarding the woman we're looking for."

"I called him," Jyn said. "He was supposed to help me get out until you lot showed up. Why are you here anyway? What is it you want?"

"Can I get a word in?" Cassian spat.

Poe waved at the space between them. "The floor is yours."

"We're looking for your father. We believe you can help us." Cassian explained.

"Father?" Jyn looked genuinely confused. "I'm an orphan."

"You would be," Cassian replied. "If both your parents were dead, but we believe your father is still alive."

"My parents were killed by the Empire. Neither of them is alive."

"If that's true," Cassian said. "Then you have nothing to lose in helping us. It will confirm for us what you already seem so certain of, and we can all go our separate ways."

Jyn took a moment to study each of their faces. When she got to Finn's she frowned.

"Liana, what are we talking about here?" Finn took her hand.

Jyn pulled away from him. He turned to Poe and Cassian, the first hint of anger bubbling under the surface.

Poe leaned forward. "You don't know?" He turned to Jyn. "He doesn't know?"

She shook her head. "No one does. Easier to stay dead that way."

An uneasy silence fell over the group and Cassian took a moment to assess the situation. This was a good thing. They'd all assumed Finn was there for the same reason they were, to find Galen Erso. It was still possible he was lying, but the frustration seemed genuine enough, particularly on Jyn's part.

She'd worked hard to keep that part of her life secret. A large chunk of Saw's organization was killed in a coup attempt in Venezuela years back. Rumor said a sixteen year old Jyn Erso was among the dead. That was the last record of her in South America. Three years later she started popping up in Europe, different names, different looks, different skills. Nothing that would tie her string of criminal aliases to the revolutionary teenager who perished half a world away.

If Finn didn't know then it was best they kept it that way. The fewer people who knew about the Erso's and the Alliance's intentions, the better. It would make it easier for Poe to pull Finn away. Easier to get Jyn alone for the job ahead. Cassian glanced at Poe, who seemed to be thinking the same thing. Poe nodded. When Cassian turned back to Jyn the uncertainty on her face had melted away. Her mouth was open, eyes hard, shoulders squared.

"Wait—"

"Jyn Erso. My name is Jyn Erso."

_Fuck,_ Cassian thought.

Finn's brow pinched slightly, his eyes momentarily losing their focus as he processed the words. Slowly his attention returned to the woman next to him. The pieces clicked.

"Erso? As in Galen Erso?"

Jyn nodded firmly.

Finn stood, pacing the aisle. "Erso died in the explosion at the Eadu Research Facility." He shook his head, absolutely certain. "Erso is dead. He's dead."

Poe's eyes narrowed, probably thinking the same thing Cassian was. That was very specific information for a run-of-the-mill Stormtrooper to possess.

"He might be. Only one way to know for sure," Poe said.

Finn's head whipped around to Jyn. "Do you know what your father did?"

"Some. I was a baby when we left Russia. Eight or nine when we fled to South America. I can barely remember what my father's face looked like."

"But you know what he worked on, right? What he helped build?" Finn asked.

"I've heard stories. Some I'm not sure I believe."

Finn's head whipped to Cassian and Poe. "And your people want to find him now?"

"That's our business," Cassian said calmly. "I appreciate your help in arranging this meeting, now if you'll please excuse us, the lady and I have business."

Finn considered them for a long moment. "You're right. I don't want to know. Better if I don't." He pointed over his shoulder at the back room. "Is it quiet back there?"

Jyn's head began to dart around the party, eyes growing wider. "No!" She jumped into the aisle, grabbing Finn's arm. "No, no, no. You can't leave. I don't know these people. I'll double what I paid you for the prison job. Please."

"That wasn't part of the deal," Cassian said.

"Liana," Finn sighed. "Jyn. Information is like cancer. The more people who have it the faster it spreads. I have as much reason to stay away as you do."

"That's why I need you. I have no idea what's really going on here. You do, _please_."

Finn shook his head. He looked like a man defeated. "I don't want to get involved."

"Nothing stays hidden forever," Poe said gently. "If this isn't proof of that, I don't know what is. Eventually you're going to have to pick a side."

"Side?" Finn sneered. "There are no sides. In war there are only victims. The victims who die, the victims who survive, and the lucky ones who never had to carry the burden of knowing who fucked them over."

Frighteningly, Cassian could see his point. War was only good for one thing. Destruction. He'd seen the truth of Finn's words first hand.

Poe stood. "We think the First Order is looking for Erso too. You could help us. We could win the war before it ever begins."

"You're not listening." Finn's hands clenched and unclenched at his side as he stepped closer to Poe. "This is not a war you can win."

Jyn's eyes grew wide, her gaze traveling past Cassian toward the man casting his long shadow along the floor. Kato had approached the group, probably assuming violence was coming.

"That's not necessary, Kato," Cassian said. "Sit."

"Fuck me! You're a big man," Jyn breathed.

Kato canted his head, frowning. "Thank you. I politely decline."

Poe chuckled, retaking his seat. "Alright, let's all take a breather."

Jyn tugged at Finn's arm again. "Please, just hear them out with me. Tell me what you think. After that, when we land, if you want to walk I won't ask for anything else."

He nodded and they both retook their seats.

"Who's the big man?" Jyn asked, tracking Kato as he returned to his place by the cockpit.

"My partner, Kato," Cassian replied.

"Like, partner? Or like, _partner_?" She wiggled her eyebrows the second time she said it.

"I believe Ms. Erso is attempting to ask if our relationship is sexual in nature," Kato explained.

Jyn leaned out into the aisle giving Kato a thumbs up. "That is exactly what I'm asking! Thank you for clarifying that, Kato. You've been ever so helpful."

Poe stifled a grin, glancing over at Finn who snorted.

"We don't have time for this," Cassian hissed.

"We've got plenty of time," Jyn corrected. "It'll be hours before we land. Nothing we can do up here but chat. So go on, tell me what you want, I'll tell you what I want and we'll see if we can come to an agreement."

Cassian leaned back in his seat. They were finally getting somewhere. "One of my sources told me that you have a way of contacting your father. A blind drop of some sort."

Jyn's eyes narrowed. "Who told you that?"

"A man I spoke to. Someone who knew your father."

"Your _friend_ was mistaken."

Cassian's stiffened. "I never said he was my friend."

"I don't care what he was, he was mistaken," she hissed.

"It is possible the intelligence we garnered was incorrect," Kato added.

"Then let's go back to the source," Poe offered. "We'll take another crack. See if we can verify his story."

Cassian was staring daggers at Jyn from across the aisle. He knew who he'd gotten his information from. What kind of person he'd been dealing with.

"Go on," Jyn prompted. "Tell them who your source is."

"It doesn't matter now," Cassian hissed.

"No really, I'm sure they'd love to know."

"It. Doesn't. Matter."

"Orson Krennic," Jyn spat. "The man who sold us out, betrayed my father to the Emperor. I was a child, but I remember him shooting my mother in the back. You'll have to excuse me if I don't much trust your source."

"Okay," Poe began. "This Krennic guy, he screwed your family. That's a good reason not to trust him, but that doesn't mean he was lying. He might really believe what he said. Let's find out exactly what he told Cass and why?"

Jyn leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest. "If you decide to visit Orson Krennic again you'll do it without me."

"No one is visiting Krennic!" Cassian sagged in his seat. "He's dead."

"Like Galen Erso is dead?" Finn asked.

"No, like I collected the bounty on his head, dead." Cassian replied.

"You're a bounty hunter?" Jyn punched Finn in the shoulder. "You handed me over to a bounty hunter?"

"I'm not a—" Cassian took a deep breath. "I'm not a bounty hunter. I keep the license because it's useful."

"We were going to kill Krennic anyway," Kato added. "Cashing in on the bounty was pragmatic. No use wasting a murder."

Jyn glared at Kato, obviously unsettled by the admission. She was skeptical, defensive. Cassian thought of everything he knew about her. Her family was destroyed by the Empire. She at least knew a little about Finn's past, a shared commonality. Perhaps he could appeal to her that way.

"Jyn, please." Cassian leaned forward. "I know what it's like to lose everything to the Empire. They took my family, my security, my whole life away when I was a child. I've been fighting this war since I was six years old. All I'm asking is that you try. If your father truly is dead, then you send the message and nothing happens. After that, we can help you. I feel responsible. It was my investigation that lead the Imperials to you. We can—"

"It's a sympathy play," Finn interjected.

"Come on man," Poe cried.

Jyn frowned. "They're lying?"

"Only by omission. It's _possible _that Cassian's investigation lead the First Order to discovering that you or your father was still alive." Finn shrugged. "But if the First Order really is trying to get into the Death Star, they would have found you eventually. By making the sympathy play, Cassian here is hoping you'll trust him. The story about his childhood is probably true, at least partially. The best lies are." He turned to Cassian. "You were going to offer her protection. Her and her father?"

Cassian nodded.

Jyn frowned.

"You should do it," Finn said.

Jyn's head spun around. "What? Why?"

"Because he's right. If your father is dead, nothing happens, but you're still at risk. If he is alive, they can protect you both. You'll never be free again, but the cage will be nicely gilded. You'll barely notice the bars."

"Then why warn me?" she asked.

"Because you should walk into this eyes open. If the Empire gets Erso back, they'll torture him for information. If they get you both back they can use you as leverage, force him to work. That's far more dangerous."

Jyn sat quietly for a long time, considering the situation, more than likely weighing her options. "London," she said finally. "We need to go to London. I'll send your message, but we do this my way. Clear?"

"Tell me what you want, and if we can, we'll do it your way," Cassian countered.

She turned to her friend. "Finn?"

"Let's hear the plan. I'll let you know."

"Okay." Jyn leaned forward, a smile spreading on her lips. "First, we talk Arsenal…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The moment Rey entered the commissary, all eyes turned to her. They watched her carefully as she made her way to the coffee station. She grabbed her mug from the shelf, filled it with coffee as black as her mood and took her first sip. When she pulled the second mug off the shelf, the sound of scraping chairs and shuffling feet was immediate. By the time she'd added the two sugars the room was nearly clear.

It was a testament to his winning personality that Ben Solo could clear a room before he walked into it. Everyone already knew that when Rey prepared two cups the fireworks were soon to follow. She tried not to dwell on the inevitable argument as she took her seat at the nearest table to the door and set herself to reviewing the last few adds to the mission debrief.

Ben was going to be furious. A week long mission in Quebec took a pair of ugly turns leaving their objective unachieved and two of Ben's aliases blown. Something outside of their control had gone very wrong and he was going to unload on her because she was the low hanging fruit. Technically it was her job to find out what had gone sideways, but it was not her fault. _Someone _found it difficult to see the difference.

"You wanna tell me what the fuck happened out there?"

And so it began. Rey affixed her smile and tracked Ben as he entered the room, throwing a leg over the bench and dropping down in front of her. She had to be quick in her visual assessment or he'd get upset about that too. There were deep bags under his eyes, a hunch to his shoulders, the veins in his hands were showing clear through his pale skin.

"Working on it," she pushed his coffee toward him and slid the tablet next to it.

"Work faster," he spat, taking his first sip of coffee. "I lost two good—"

"I know what you lost, Ben," she said, calmly. "Two AKs, a Browning, a Gloch, your custom H&K, over a hundred sundry rounds of ammunition, four EMPs, two mobile phones, six vehicles, clothes and accessories for two aliases. Have I missed anything?"

"You forgot the kitchen sink," he seethed.

"I'll be sure to add that to the report," she said, dipping her head over her tablet. "Your vitals are out of control. You've gotten twelve hours of sleep in the last week. I have no earthly idea what, if anything you've been eating other than those donuts yesterday, and your medication is delayed. It won't be here until Saturday."

"What a god damn shame."

Rey looked up at the naked rage on Ben's face. With a sigh, she pulled the chain from around her neck and slid the black ring free. The band was carved of pure Mustafar Obsidian. The rarest stone on earth. Hard as diamond, highly heat resistant and forged on the volcanic island for which it was named. The temperatures on Mustafar – where the volcanoes were always active – were the hottest catalogued on the surface of the earth.

It's the only material possession Ben prized. It had once been Leia's responsibility to keep the object safe for him, but ever since Tehran that task had fallen to Rey and she kept it close. It was the last piece of himself he shed when he left and it was the first real reminder of who he was when he got home. She'd asked early on what the ring meant but in typical Solo fashion he dodged any question that strayed too close to revealing he had a genuine personality.

His mask slipped, but only a tiny bit, as he slid the ring onto his left index finger. He flexed his hand and looked back up at Rey. "Where are we with figuring out what went wrong?" He was a hair calmer now, but that anger was still simmering like lava under the surface.

"We'll discuss it tomorrow."

He pounded his fist on the table. "We need to discuss it now."

"I am not doing this now," she barked. "You've barely slept all week, which means I've barely slept all week. Drink your fucking coffee. Read the fucking debrief. Go to the fucking meeting. And then go home. I will be around at four to make sure you take your medication."

"I don't need it," he growled.

"That is not up for discussion." She leaned in, dropping her voice so it wouldn't carry into the hall. "You will take the medication of your own volition or I will call Dr. Kalonia to administer it for you. Is that understood?"

Ben flinched, recovering quickly with a sly smile. His voice dropped, dripping with innuendo. "I love it when you take control."

Rey rolled her eyes. She really hated when he did that. "I'll see you in twenty." She slid her tablet off the table as she stood.

"I left your presents on your desk," he called.

Through the reflection in the window she could see his self-satisfied smile and the way his eyes followed her out. It was offensive the way he looked at her. Like she was a worthy conquest. He should be so lucky. She knew it was an act. He'd use any trick to get the upper hand and his come-ons really bothered her. She still hadn't figured out why he did it. Only that it always succeeded in pissing her off and they both knew it.

* * *

Once it was safe to enter the commissary again, Kay had run out for a coffee. Anyone with half a brain avoided it when Ben got home. It took a few days for the asshole to rub off. It was actually a testament to how well Rey was doing that the asshole rubbed off at all. He was insufferable through Kun and well into Wexley. Rey was doing pretty well. Especially considering that he bought her presents when he went into the field. The snuggie debacle was funny, but it was hardly the first.

Kay ducked back into The Pit and glanced at Rey's desk as she passed. He'd lost whatever snacks he'd intended to bring home from the previous jobs when the Vancouver job went sideways, but there was a still a tin of Tim Horton's coffee on her desk. She shook her head. A few more months of this and Rey might actually tame the savage beast. It would be a miracle.

She dropped back into her seat with a groan and returned to the task of running through RDR's files, searching for a target whose credentials they could steal. So far the things weren't looking good. A lot of politicians, which wasn't surprising. Cartel lords, also not surprising. None of them would make an easy mark. So far she'd been prioritizing them by accessibility. They needed someone who was easy to get to, so they could make a copy of their computer or cell phone. From there, banking information would be easy to get. None of them fit the profile.

The computers were parsing out most of it. Running travel and purchase histories, facial rec hits, known holdings, lesser known holdings, the sorts of data they kept on the planet's most corrupt individuals. Her job was to bring that element of human intuition. To look for the things the computer didn't think to look for, like the names of various Japanese clothing boutiques in Harajuku and Shinjuku.

Kay leaned into her terminal, pulling up the master file. The account was owned by Tasu Leech, boss of Kanji Klub. They'd gotten data on him easily enough. He wasn't a big enough fish for RDR to uber encrypt his accounts and he had no formal connections to the Hutts. The purchases were on a secondary account. She tugged at the thread and smiled. He was keeping a honey pot for his honey pot. Funneling dirty money into a slush fund to keep his mistress in Yohji Yamamoto.

That was, potentially, an easy mark. She redirected resources to build a deeper profile on Abare Yuriko. Within a couple of hours they'd know about every minute of every day for the last thirty days of Yuriko's life. Privacy was as much a myth as Santa Claus. The afternoon was finally looking up. If she could score a few more easy targets and present them to Amilyn, she'd earn major brownie points with the boss ladies.

Kay kept digging. She had nothing better to do. Poe wouldn't call unless she was at home. He wasn't supposed to call at all, but every agent kept untracked burner phones in case of emergency. It was an open secret. Their bedrooms and bathrooms were the only places on the property they weren't being watched (or listened to, in theory).

A leasing document caught her attention. She read through it, checking the attached monthly transactions. Then she went rifling through the utilities, then vehicle and mobile records. It was him. It was definitely him. Jonathan Anders, the Swiss alias used by FN-2187. He was an account holder with RDR. More importantly, his Anders accounts were receiving transfers from another RDR account that was deeply encrypted, one of the inaccessible ones. He was a major through line and they had access to him. Leia would salivate over that.

Her first thought was to jump out of her seat, but she could already hear Poe chastising her for her impatience. The smart play was to keep digging. Find out as much as she could about Jonathan Anders' accounts and holdings within RDR. See if she could connect any of his other aliases. Then, with a full work-up, present her findings. It was definitely going to be a good day!

* * *

Ben was just stepping into a pair of cotton pajama pants when Rey knocked on his bedroom door. He settled the elastic band on his waist and called for her.

"You ready?" she asked, stepping through their shared bathroom into his bedroom.

"Do I have a choice?" he asked, toweling his hair.

"Not really," she said. It had none of her usual bite. It was no fun poking the rattlesnake when it didn't have fangs.

Ben rolled into bed. Rey retrieved the supplies from his bedside table. He set the tourniquet. She prepped the syringe. Tucking her leg under her, she sat facing him and he placed his arm in her lap. Her gaze fell on the half dozen dots on the inside of his arm and the dark veins beneath.

Rey was no stranger to scars. She had many of her own. The few on her arms and legs that were sometimes visible. Many more on her back that he'd caught glimpses of in the bathroom mirror. She had a bad habit of not closing the door completely. His body bore several as well, most of which were exposed on his bare arms and chest. Still, the ones that marked his reliance on the medication seemed to be the ones that bothered her the most.

He sat up, the towel still covering half his face, his arm slid across her lap toward the syringe. "I can do it if you want."

She plucked the towel off his head, the first hint of a smile. "I'm fine."

"You're not."

"No, but I will be." She nudged him in the chest with her shoulder. "Lie down."

"Trying to get me into bed, Johnson?"

"Idiot," she whispered. At least she was smiling.

She cleaned the injection site with a gentle hand and Ben felt the familiar sting as the drugs entered his veins. He focused on Rey, taking in every detail of her face. The sadness in her eyes. The little lines between her brows where she frowned. The way her mouth pulled sideways when she was upset. The loose strands of hair that fell around her ear from the haphazard bun on the top of her head.

The tourniquet came free and she hooked her thumb into his, turning his palm over to check his watch. She would sit with him until his resting heart rate dipped below sixty. It would only be a few minutes. None of his other handlers had treated this process with the care Rey did. None of them were ever comfortable with his night terrors or the process by which they were medicated into oblivion. Rey was the only one who bothered to notice that Ben liked the ordeal least of all. He'd once joked that she should read him a bedtime story. In her way, she did.

"What happened with Amilyn? She said you got uppity with her."

Rey snorted, glancing up at him. "I told her drugging you isn't a solution... I find myself saying as I pump you full of drugs."

"Bet she loved that."

"I don't really care what they like. It's the truth." She adjusted, curling both legs under her. She took one last look at his watch before turning her attention to the window above his bed, not focusing on anything outside. Her eyes darting around the empty air. "She didn't know your dosage had gone up."

"Oh?" He asked, the first hint of the sedatives reaching his brain, slowing the world down.

"She didn't know you were building up a tolerance. This isn't a solution, Ben."

"Hm." He watched the dust motes catch the light around her face.

"We're putting a band aid on a wound that isn't healing."

His fingers curled around the edge of her palm. "We? You defending my virtue now, Rey?"

"What virtue?" she chuckled. "I'm just trying to keep you alive. It's my job, remember."

"Someone ought to," he mumbled.

Her face was fuzzy in the warm afternoon sunlight. Her eyes dipped to his wrist and back to meet his.

"We'll talk about it again in the morning. Get some rest."

He didn't want her to leave yet. Not until he was too far gone to notice. He needed to keep her talking. "Did…" His eyelids were getting heavy. The darkness was reaching out for him. "Did you see? Tico?"

She smiled. "I did. They said hello. Rose is working on a new project that…"

Her words began to lose coherence. Meaning slipped away to sound. Thought gave way to feeling. Ben reached for the soft edge of Rey's voice, holding that warmth as the darkness dragged him under.

* * *

Rey stepped out of the shower in a wave of steam. She missed her tub. Missed her long soaks. Her first apartment in the Alliance had a tub. The house she shared with Ben didn't, only a shower large enough for a baseball team. She would trade the party shower in a second for a soaking tub. It helped her decompress. Helped her think. She'd have to reserve one on base soon. She was long overdue for a good soak.

Once dressed, she scanned Ben's vitals to make sure they were holding steady. They weren't, which wasn't exactly a surprise. She passed through the bathroom, cracking open the door to his room slowly. To add insult to injury, he was a light sleeper, probably because of whatever had happened to him. He was already muttering. Tossing and turning on the mattress. The heavy knit blanket kicked to the edge of the bed. One pillow on the floor.

It was best to wait him out. Sometimes he slept through it.

"No…" he muttered, "don't … shut up … shut up…" He curled onto his side, pulling a spare pillow into him. "No, Snoke."

_Shit._

It was an early warning sign. The Snoke dreams were always bad. She wanted to go to him. It was an ingrained instinct to try and soothe, but Dr. Kalonia had been very clear in her warnings. He could lash out, hurt her without meaning to. The handler who'd lasted the longest, Karé Kun, finally quit on him when he threw her across a room and she ended up with a concussion.

The moaning and crying out came next. There was still a chance he would settle, but the pained noises he was making were heartbreaking to hear. He punctuated his wails with a sharp hiss or a guttural grunt. It took her back to Tehran. To the way Plutt would beat the children when they disappointed him. The sounds they made – she made – as he punished them.

Tears soon followed, streaming down Ben's face. "Not that … please … I…" The scream came on so quickly it startled Rey. Raw agony tearing out of his throat in a hoarse rush. She jumped into action.

"Ben!" She clapped her hands loudly. "Ben wake up."

He screamed louder. That wasn't good.

"Ben! Ben! Ben!" She kept calling his name as she pulled the alarm application up on her phone. "Ben, I need you to wake up." She activated the alarm. The high pitched trilling an unpleasant juxtaposition to the deep bass in his voice.

He flew upright, eyes darting around the room. She waited as he took in the scene, figured out where he was, and flopped onto his back, pulling the pillow over his face.

"How long was I down?" he muttered.

Rey checked her watch. "Hour and a half."

He pressed the pillow into his face and screamed again, this one was pure rage. The pillow went flying across the room a second later. It sailed through his open bedroom door and over the railing hitting something on its descent that shattered on impact with the tile below.

She held a hand out to him. "Come on. I've got a few beers in the fridge."

"I prefer Scotch."

"Well I don't have any bloody Scotch!" she snapped. She took a deep breath and stepped back from the ledge. "I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. Come have a drink."

"I don't want—"

"Please!"

He grumbled, but rolled off the bed. On the way out, he swiped the blanket off the edge and wrapped the black fabric around himself like a cape. She wondered why anyone would want a rough, scratchy blanket every night. It certainly matched his personality. She led the way into the kitchen where Ben settled into a seat at the island and Rey retrieved the beers from the fridge.

"You gonna have one or not?" She noticed him twirling the ring on his index finger.

"Yeah, why not?"

She popped the cap off and slid it across the brushed metal surface. He left the ring long enough to stop the bottle then went back to toying with it. He had a habit of doing it after an episode. She'd seen it often enough to wonder if there was a link. When he noticed her staring he stopped.

"One of these days you're going to tell me about that ring," she said, spinning the base of her bottle absently.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I'm going to keep annoying you about it until you do."

He snorted. "I have no reason to share this story with you. You're temporary."

She nearly spat out her drink. "Did– did you just call me _temporary_?"

"Am I wrong?" he asked quietly, his attention fixed on the bottle in his hands. "Every handler I have is temporary."

"And whose fault would that be?"

"Four more months. You mutter it when you're annoyed with me. You're in it for the field commission and I only agreed because I didn't want my mother sidelining your career to get to me."

"Please don't feel the need to do me any favors," Rey spat. "I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

"I've already done you the favor. You could at least show a little gratitude."

"Gratitude? For what? The lack of sleep? The abuse? The only time you're even halfway polite is when you want something, because that's what you do. You affect the personality that will get you what you want. You're nice to me out of sheer boredom."

"Boredom?" he choked. "There's no room for boredom in—."

"Tell that to the hours I've lost sitting on the line with you in your hotel rooms."

"It doesn't have to be you! Anyone can keep tabs on me in downtime. You choose to."

"I choose to because you berate everyone else. You want me to pull up your outbound call logs? You go looking for something to poke. It doesn't work on me so you changed tactics. Or do you think I hadn't noticed the ways you've adjusted your behavior?"

"I adjust my behavior according to the situation."

"Well adjust to this. I may not be your handler for long, but I will be an Agent one day. That means we'll have to work together in the field. Considering I'm one of the few people who puts up with your shit, I have a feeling that's going to happen a lot. I'm not _going_ anywhere so get used to me." She punctuated her words by knocking back her drink.

Ben looked like he was about to say something so she cut him off.

"And so we're clear. Don't ever call me _temporary_ again or I will knock you clear into next week."

"I'd love to see you try," he said with a mischievous smile.

"And another thing, the flirting is getting old. It's not going to happen. You and I both know that. Let it go. It's annoying."

He smiled. "That's why I do it."

"I KNOW!"

"Then you know I won't stop."

"For the love of god why? Why are you like this, Ben? What is so wonderful about not trusting anyone?"

He frowned. "You're not paying attention."

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

He laced his fingers together and leaned into the table. "How spiteful am I, Rey? And be honest."

"I don't think there is a scale that could measure that." She scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"And is there anyone in the world who I pare that back for?"

She snorted. "No."

"You're not paying attention."

She shrugged. "Your mother, sometimes."

"Wrong. Sometimes I spite her for no other reason than to keep things interesting."

"Then who, Ben? Just spell it out for me because I don't want to do this cryptic shit when I'm at home."

"You. Just you." He shook his head. "You saved my ass in Tehran and half a dozen other times since then. If Wexley or Connix had been in that seat, I would have been on my own. Kun would have argued with me in Milan. Bridger would have had a panic attack at the sight of those kids in Sao Paulo."

The memory flashed up before her in technicolor. Such small bodies shouldn't hold so much blood. "I almost had a panic attack."

"But you didn't. It's not any easier for me to see that shit, but you do the job first and you lose it later. You had no training, no experience and you ran with it. If I didn't think you were capable I wouldn't have agreed to this. My mother would have benched me for a while, but I spent two years on the sidelines before she caved the first time. She would have caved again."

He tapped his index finger against the counter. "I annoy you because it still gets under your skin. When it stops working I'll stop doing it. You want to go out into the field? Learn to ignore it. High stress. High pressure. That's the job. You handle it and – as much as I hate to admit it – you handle me. I'm gonna be fucked the day you go into field work because for all her machinations, my mother got this one right. Ematt will do, but I'm not going to find a better handler than you. So don't tell me I don't trust anyone. I put my life in your hands every time I go out there because you've earned it."

Her first instinct was to mistrust every word that came out of his mouth. It felt like bait. Like a way to sucker her into a false sense of security so he could come at her sideways. The look on his face told her it wasn't. He'd spoken in anger and at that exact moment his mind was catching up to everything he'd just said, realizing he'd said too much. Ben wasn't accustomed to telling the truth. He didn't wear it well.

It was almost intrusive watching his eyes fill with dread at the revelation. She focused her attention on spinning her beer, offering him at least a measure of privacy in his stupidity. She had no idea how to respond to that anyway. A thin scraping sound drew her attention just in time to catch him flying out of his seat.

"Where are you going?" Rey asked.

"Out." He was halfway to the stairs when he spun. "And before you say another word, I'm on the island. There's no need to babysit me here. Take a fucking night off, get some sleep, if I die in the next eight hours it won't be your fault."

* * *

The pub was full of patrons, clad in red and white, chanting as the match cut away to commercial.

Jyn laughed, standing in the booth seat as she sang. _"We all follow the Arsenal, over land and sea..."_

_"And Leicester!"_ Finn shouted.

Jyn smiled at him then nudged Poe with her shoe, egging him on._ "We all follow the Arsenal, onto victory! All together now!"_

Poe took up the chant, raising his glass. Their reverie continued for two more rounds until the match resumed on the television and all the patrons returned their attention to the game. Jyn stepped over Poe, excusing herself to the loo. Cassian was the only one who remained unmoved by the atmosphere of celebration.

Finn leaned into him. "Don't look so sour. You stick out."

"We're wasting time," Cassian seethed.

"We aren't," Finn countered. "This is all part of the plan."

"If you say so."

"I do." He slid a drink in front of Cassian. "Lighten up."

"I'll lighten up when the shadow of the Empire is scrubbed form this world." Cassian slid out of the booth, storming out of the front door in a rage.

Finn kept his anger in check. He had no reason to doubt Cassian's hatred, but his narrow-mindedness was the exact reason Finn spent all those years in hiding. To a man like Cassian, Finn was once an enemy, always an enemy. Poe slid into the vacant spot, patting Finn on the shoulder.

"Don't mind him, he's just tense."

"I noticed, which is why you should be worried." Finn sipped his beer.

"About Cass?"

Fin nodded. "He's the biggest threat to your mission."

"Nah, he's harmless." Poe was a consummate professional when it came to lying. Finn knew better.

"You and I both know what he is. It's only a matter of time before Jyn does too." Finn chuckled. "Women always figure out the truth."

"What are you two whispering about?" Jyn dipped her head towards Poe.

"I was just saying I think Man United can pull it off in the second half," Poe lied. "Arsenal's slowing down."

"Boo!" Jyn shouted. "Keep talking like that and I'll sell you out to the locals." She knocked back her drink.

Finn chuckled. "Slow down. I know it's your first taste of freedom in a while, but you need to keep a clear head."

Jyn scowled but complied, settling back into the booth. "It's done by the way. Now we wait."

A roar went through the room, the pitch rising as the forward from Manchester United edged closer to Arsenal's goalie. There were no defenders in sight. It was one on one. He took the shot, it sailed into the top corner of the goal, tipping the post, spinning…

"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!"

The room exploded in profanities.

"Told you." Poe shrugged.

Poe's amusement was short lived. Out of the corner of his eye Finn caught Poe frowning, muttering to himself, though he couldn't hear the words over the din. Cassian stormed in a moment later, tugging Jyn down from where she'd stood in the booth once more.

"Company!" Cassian shouted over the raucous.

Poe stood immediately, Finn wiggling out of the booth behind him. With only the briefest of stray thoughts, Finn noticed the shape of Poe's backside in his jeans.

Jyn was already moving toward the back door, waving them on. She hit the rear exit with her whole body sending a freezing wind coursing into the narrow hall.

"We can sneak out this way if we—"

"Too late," Cassian interjected, his attention pointed toward the street.

Poe was thrusting something into Finn's hands. "Earpiece. Hurry."

Finn thrust the device into his ear, just barely clearing the door when he saw two men at the end of the alley.

"Checking now," Kato said into Finn's ear. "Two Imperials. Confirmed."

They began moving toward the other end of the alley and the bustling street beyond, Cassian up front, Finn in the rear.

"Split up?" Cassian asked. "I'll take the girl."

"No, I'll take the girl," Poe said, glancing at Finn. "Do you trust me?"

"Do I have much of a choice?" Finn replied without looking.

Their pursuers were getting closer. In the dark Finn couldn't clearly make out their faces. He hoped it wasn't anyone he'd liked.

"Swap dance partners?" Poe asked.

"You and me, we dance later," Finn replied.

"Sounds good." Poe reached for Jyn's arm, pushing her east along the sidewalk.

Cassian turned west and Finn followed. The last thing he heard was Poe shouting. "Run."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Can I get an exit strategy?" Poe asked as they made a mad dash across a bustling city street.

Horns blared, people stared. The tangle of narrow London streets and shopping centers looked far less inviting than it had when they arrived. Great for losing a tail in, but too easy to get lost without a guide.

"I am currently assisting Cassian," Kato replied.

"Help the girl!" Cassian shouted in Poe's ear.

"The girl doesn't need help!" Jyn shouted back. She tapped Poe's shoulder. "Follow me."

Kato's annoyed response cut out seconds into it. He'd switched to a private line.

_Great!_ Poe fumed.

Not far off the road Jyn led them into an alley. At the end of it they found themselves at the entrance to Charing Cross station. That was an idea. Jyn slowed and Poe matched her.

"How likely are they to open fire on us in here?" Jyn asked, speed walking in the direction of a Costa coffee shop then looping around a freestanding set of booths toward the underground entrance like any other commuter.

"Not their style," Poe replied.

He noticed Jyn scanning the overhead route display. While she did that, Poe pulled two Oyster Cards from his pocket and handed one to Jyn. "You ever been down here before?"

"A few more times than you have, I'd bet." She pushed his card aside to reveal one of her own.

"Follow me. I know my way around better than anyone." She slid through the gate just as their pursuer entered the plaza.

They rushed down the escalator in time to catch the doors to a train opening and evening commuters pouring in. They darted into an open car.

Poe still had one tracking dot in his eye, slowly coming down onto the platform. Getting closer.

"Don't sit. Don't go far." Jyn whispered.

The tracking dot appeared on his level, and Poe looked past it towards a man he didn't recognize. He approached the carriage behind theirs, scanning the faces. He caught sight of Poe, who moved to obscure Jyn's face.

"Let them see," she whispered. "Are they coming?"

"Just one."

She eyed the door they were standing next to. "Here?"

"Door behind us." Poe watched the dot move closer. "He's in. Coming closer."

"Out now!" she breathed.

She hopped out and Poe barely jumped through as the door slid closed. Their pursuer appeared in the window, sneering at them.

"Mind the gap, ya cunt." Jyn muttered as the train rolled away. She turned, brightening considerably. "Fancy a pint, then?"

* * *

"They seem to have lost their pursuers on their own, which means my services were not needed after all," Kato stated matter-of-factly.

One of these days Cassian was going to murder his partner, but not until after they lost their tail. "How good for them."

"Can you two argue later?" Finn asked.

"Where are we going?" Cassian asked.

"I'm setting a footpath for you now, but a protracted chase is never recommended."

_"Madre de—"_

"Look out!" Finn pulled Cassian back seconds before he ran straight into a woman pushing a stroller. "Sorry miss." He said, and they ducked into an alley.

"Fuck," Cassian swore. They were at a dead end.

"Hey, eyes in the sky. Any ideas?" Finn asked.

Cassian scanned the narrow passageway between the two buildings. He found a fire escape and an open window on the third floor. The tracking dot was back far enough that if they hurried they might make it up in time.

"We climb," Cassian said, reaching for the metal railing.

Finn raised his head and he saw it too, jumping and pulling himself up in a smooth motion. Whatever Finn was, he was ready for anything. They reached the window and Cassian peered inside. Everything looked quiet and he waved Finn in first, slipping through the window just as their pursuers shadow appeared at the edge of the alley.

Cassian watched through his retinal display, ignoring Finn's tap on the shoulder. The dot hovered by the street for a moment then moved closer to the window. Finn tapped his arm again. Cassian turned to wave him off and saw the sleeping child on the far side of the room.

If the Imperial followed them up he didn't want an innocent in the line of fire. He had only a split second to make his choice and he made it. If the Imperial saw them, then the Imperial was going to have to die. He reached for the firearm at the small of his back. Finn put a hand on his elbow, shaking his head.

The figure in the alley looked around. They were hidden to one side of the window so they wouldn't be seen on a cursory visual inspection, but there hadn't been enough time to close and latch the window. Cassian held his breath. The tracking dot moved back toward the street. He waited for it to reach the intersection at the far end and cross it before releasing his held breath.

"We're clear," he whispered.

Finn nodded.

* * *

Cassian paced the passenger compartment, checking his watch again. Two hours. They should have returned already or at least checked in. Finn was playing online Scrabble on his phone, it pinged periodically as the game progressed. Kato was reading alone in a corner. Neither of them seemed concerned with the absence of their primary target.

Hera came out of the cockpit. "Still no word?"

Cassian shook his head.

"They'll be here in two minutes." Finn said, not looking up from his phone.

Three heads swiveled his way.

"You didn't ask," Finn added.

"You've been in communication with them this whole time and you didn't think to share that with us?" Cassian spat.

"I've been sitting on this plane for two hours and you haven't said three words to me."

"He's right," Kato added. "You've only said two."

Cassian took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He was starting to think this mission would be easier if he removed the middle man.

"Let's all just take a second, shall we?" Hera said, getting between them. "I'm assuming they're unharmed and not in need of assistance."

A wide smile spread across the Stormtrooper's face. "They're great. Arsenal beat Man U two-one."

Cassian barely registered the bewildered frown on Hera's face. "Are you telling me they went back to the pub?"

"Not the same one, no." Finn's phone pinged in his hand, as it had been all evening. "Hera, would you mind letting our friends in?"

Cassian had assumed the pinging was the game. He realized then he'd been played for a fool. The door unsealed, letting in a blast of cold air and with it, the sound of chanting. The song grew louder as the stairs descended to the tarmac.

_"We all follow the Arsenal, onto victory!"_

"Where the hell have you two been?" Cassian shouted before they could even step aboard.

"We went back to finish the match," Jyn replied, pushing past him.

"I told Finn," Poe replied.

"You should have come straight here!" Cassian shouted.

"Cassian is correct, proper protocol would have been to return immediately." Kato echoed.

"This is an off the books assignment." Poe shrugged. "Chill out."

Jyn whispered to Finn who snorted. Poe gave them a conspiratorial look as he approached.

It was a step too far for Cassian and the frustration that had been bubbling under the surface for the last two hours exploded. "I'm so glad everyone is having a good time, but while you're all celebrating I-don't-fucking-know-what, our enemies are trying to kill us. I'd really like to stay ahead of them if that's possible. In order to do that, I need a little cooperation."

Jyn blinked several times at him. "Alright, mate. Here it is, I've been in prison for seven months. I've barely seen the sun all year. I watched my club summarily spank Manchester United. I tied one on and now I'm going to sleep. Your enemies, whoever the bloody hell they are, can wait until morning." She plopped down into the empty spot next to Finn, covered her eyes with her red and white scarf and stilled.

Cassian tried appealing to Poe, but he just shrugged.

* * *

Rose's first pass at a prototype hadn't quite worked out how she planned. She'd been trying to make their rebreathers smaller. Their bulk made bringing a back-up on a dive a no-go, but system failures meant immediate death and most Operatives, while dive trained, weren't experts in the device. It had been a long-time project and every time Rose was between jobs she tinkered with it. It kept her sharp.

Screaming on the table next to her drew her attention to the screen where aliens were currently killing a black and white bombshell from a bygone era. Rose chuckled and glanced at her other screen just in time to see Rey walk by. She turned to her keyboard and waited for Rey to get closer.

"Ms. Johnson, you're needed in R&D," Rose said into the speaker and hit the button for the door.

Rey's head whipped up from her tablet and she turned toward the open door just in time for her to hear the last of the alien murders.

"What the hell is going on in here?" Rey chuckled as she walked in, hitting the panel by the door. It whizzed closed behind her. "You're not watching that old sci-fi again are you? That stuff will rot your brain!"

"I get some of my best ideas from science fiction and fantasy." Rose shrugged. "Blame Ben. How is grumpy anyway?"

"Grumpy," Rey replied. "What do you mean, blame Ben?"

"He's a film nut," Paige said, appearing in the door of her side office. "You hadn't noticed? All those nights alone in hotel rooms? The man's a walking library of film knowledge."

Paige came forward leaning heavily on her cane as she walked. Even after all these years it was hard for Rose to watch her shuffle along. Paige had wanted to be an Agent once. She'd gone the route Rey didn't, getting into Relay after a few months' time in grade, then distinguishing herself as an Operative. A handful of weeks before she was scheduled to begin her exams she ran over an IED in Somalia. The Alliance's advanced medical resources saved her life, but they couldn't save her leg. Half of it was gone and the bones were held together with rods and staples.

Paige would be the first to say that it was easy to switch gears. When life took away one dream, she found another. Sometimes a bad thing turned out to be a good one.

Rey smiled, surprised by this information. "In order to notice, he'd have to be human. Something he works very hard to hide."

Rose exchanged a look with her sister. They were on the same page. It was time for the talk. One of the unofficial functions they filled on base were as the company watercoolers. Rey was a friend, but everyone in this game went through a trial period and as Ben's handler in particular, that trust list was very short and hard won. They'd heard about her recent dressing down with Amilyn and it had been enough to convince the girls that it was time.

"Have a seat, Rey. It's time for you to get a little education on our dear friend Ben Solo."

Rey gaped at them. "Have you been holding out on me?"

"Yes," Paige replied, pulling up a stool at Rose's workstation. "Now sit."

"A lot of the tech advancements we've had in the last few years aren't strictly our own brilliance. We outsource to Hollywood." Rose pushed her tinkering aside. "There are lots of things in fiction that are close to reality, but not quite there. We look for the things that are near doable and try them. It's gotten to the point where they have monthly movie nights at Mon Cala just to get ideas."

Paige put a hand on Rey's arm. "The point is, that was Ben's idea. After he graduated from the trench he moved into Tier 2 as a Consultant and he spent a lot of time in here hanging out with us and just spitballing. I think his first idea was something from Star Trek?"

Rose nodded.

"Wait, back up. Ben was a trenchling?"

"Everyone starts in the trenches, Rey. You know that."

Rey shook her head. "I don't know. I just imagined he sprung fully formed from his mother's brain like the headache he is."

Paige snorted. "Cute, but no. Ben wasn't always the asshole he is today."

"Sort of," Rose corrected. She didn't want to give poor Rey the wrong impression. "It was still in there, but becoming an Agent brought it out in full force. I think the problem is the insomnia. Paige is convinced it's the drugs."

"Wait, you know about that?" Rey asked.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Um, you're talking to the gossip queens of the spy world."

"We also know that you read Amilyn the riot act the other day." Paige smiled. "Made my morning."

"How? Leia chewed me out for calling Ben's old handlers. Kay nearly turned green when I asked her about it." Rey looked around nervously. "I'm not even sure we should be talking about this here."

"Relax," Rose reached across the table and patted Rey's hand. "We deal with a lot of sensitive materials in here. We know things about everyone's missions that are not common knowledge. There's a reason I'm such a pain in the ass about the door. This room is on semi-permanent lock down. No one is listening."

"Are you sure?" Rey didn't looked convinced.

"Positive," Paige replied. "For example, I know there's a shortage of one of the excipients in Ben's medication. I also know Harter is working on a new formula to deal with his increased reliance on it as of late. Dosage is up to double what it was a few months ago and he's burning through it faster than ever."

Rose smiled at the befuddled look on Rey's face. "Even Amilyn didn't know that."

"She was supposed to. She just hadn't gotten around to reading her messages yet." Paige shrugged. "I had."

"Oh god." Rey chuckled. "So then, do you know what happened? Why he needs the drugs?"

Paige shook her head. "Nope. That is one mystery we have yet to crack. All we know is he came to us already on them."

Rey frowned. "Harter once told me, she'd been working with Ben from the beginning. If he came to the Alliance already on the medication then he was seeing her before he worked for Leia."

Rose nodded. "He grew up here. We know that. He left when he was a teenager, though we don't know where he ended up. It wasn't another Alliance base or we would have rooted that out already. Two years before he started, we found records of a patient with nothing more than an alphanumeric ID under Dr. Kalonia's care. That patient was taking the same drugs Ben is now."

"You haven't looked at them?" Rey asked.

Paige shook her head. "I run our email servers so peeking in on them is easy. That patient file is heavily encrypted and has access notifications set up. Just touching it will send red flags straight to the boss. I found the drug connection by accident a couple years ago."

"Okay," Rey nodded. "So Ben spends some part of two years under Dr. Kalonia's care."

"He was on level six, full quarantine," Paige explained. "Then the file was closed and two weeks later Ben showed up in the trench for the first time."

"He was quieter, back then," Rose continued. "Curious about everything and a sponge. He learned everything anyone threw at him, kinda like you. I think that's why he likes you."

"He's got a funny way of showing it." Rey sighed. "What about the anger, the outbursts?"

Paige frowned. "It was still there, but not in the same way. He didn't take it out on other people. He would get frustrated when things didn't work out or if something didn't make sense to him. Angry at himself more than anything. That's when he would lose his temper."

"Most people never saw his outbursts," Rose added. "He was usually really quiet. That's why people were uncomfortable around him. They thought he was a spy for Leia. That's why he hung out here so often. We didn't care if he was. Leia knows what we get up to."

"That, and I got the sense early on that he was healing from some wound." Paige's head stooped over her hands, toying with her fingernails. It pained Rose to see her like that. "I'd just gotten back from my injury. We would talk about it a lot. Recovery. He never revealed anything, but I knew he'd been through it. Some kind of therapy. We talked a lot about what happened next. How dreams change." Paige lapsed into silence.

"That's why your relationship with him is so different then?" Rey asked.

Rose shrugged. "We didn't treat him like a venomous snake. He was just the new guy who wanted to learn. Low man on the totem pole. Everyone else treated him like the boss' kid. We treated him like he was—"

"Human." Rey scanned the cluttered workstation in front of her.

"Which is why we're telling you this," Rose continued. "He's never had a good handler and you're short on time. Whatever it is you're doing, it's working."

Rey shook her head. "It's not. He's still atrocious."

"Far less than you think." Paige nudged Rey's arm. "You don't let him get under your skin."

"I wish that were true. He's very good at it."

"Then you keep getting under his." Rose added. "He's overdue for a little payback. Keeps him grounded."

"So, fair trade." Paige wrapped her nails on the stainless steel table. "Tell us about Vancouver."

Rey groaned. "It went wrong for no reason and I can't get a read on why."

"You'll figure it out." Rose pulled her work back in front of her. "The real million dollar question is, what's Leia chasing?"

"I'm not the only one that noticed then?" Rey smiled. "What do you know?"

"This all goes back to Iran," Paige said. "Leia classified the shit out of those files the second I pulled them. Whatever was on there has her rattled."

"Seen any patterns lately?" Rose asked.

"Aside from the Hutts?" Rey asked.

Paige shook her head. "This is deeper than that."

"I'm starting to get that sense." Rey nodded. "There's only one common denominator that I can find. All our assignments have been with different organizations, different industries, but they all have one thing in common. They all have accounts with the Swiss bank RDR."

"Ritter der Ren?" Paige asked. "Niima made a move a few months ago. Major coup. Moved all her money there. That's Hutt War."

Rey shook her head. "I don't think so. We've actually been keeping out of the Hutt War, for the most part. No direct intervention. RDR's the one thing that connects all our assignments since Tehran. We were watching Niima's holdings, then all her money went to RDR, she turned up dead and we've been investigating them since."

"What do we know about this bank?" Rose asked, turning the board to examine her work.

"Not for my eyes. Leia's classifying all the intelligence as soon we get our hands on it. I've picked up a few things here and there." Rey shrugged. "On the surface it's just another crooked bank. I don't know why she's so interested in it. There are at least a dozen others with similar clientele lists and a few overlapping customers."

Paige grinned. "Well, there's one possibility…"

"I'm all ears," Rey said, leaning closer.

"Back in the days of the Empire there was an elite group within the military. Palatine's own personal boogeymen lead by Vader. They were called the Knights of Ren."

An alert trilled on Rey's phone drawing her attention. She paled.

"Everything alright?" Paige asked.

"Ben's pain responses are spiking. Something's wrong." Rey slid from her seat. "He disappeared on me last night. GPS says he's back in the house. It could be serious. I should go."

Rey darted into the hallway, her heels echoing like tiny clock strikes through the hall.

"Rey!" Paige called, but the door had already closed behind her. "She left her tablet."

Rose glanced over at the hallway monitors. A few feet past the door Leia had stopped Rey in the hall. "She's still out there. I'll give it to her."

Hopping out of her seat, she grabbed the tablet and stepped out into the hall just in time to hear Rey yell "Well, if you're that intent on killing him you can do it without my help!"

Leia's jaw dropped, eyes growing wider by the second. She noticed Rose standing in the doorway and immediately mastered herself. "We'll continue this conversation later." Without another word Leia stormed past R&D and down the hall.

"Damn," Rey breathed.

"Uh, Rey?" Rose called.

Rey turned, startled.

"You left your tablet."

* * *

Ben's mouth was on fire. That delicious tingling in the back of his throat. Sweat began to bead on his upper lip but it hurt so good. He took another luxurious bite of his Biryani and savored the burn. His phone began to dance around the kitchen island, knocking into his plastic takeaway clamshell. He stared at Rey's number idly weighing his options.

She'd probably noticed the adrenaline spike and subtle pain responses in his vitals. If he picked up, he'd get an earful. If he didn't pick up, she'd rush over to make sure he was okay. She'd be twice as angry when she arrived to find the source of the problem was nothing more than a spicy meal. One Ben, admittedly, shouldn't be eating. She'd be home though.

Her lamb Korma was cooling on the counter. That would temper her rage a bit. Coupled with the promise of sleep she could probably be talked down and he'd get a few hours of needling in before he was forced into chemical torpor. The phone stopped ringing and a trickle of guilt seeped in, souring the food. She was stressed enough. He shouldn't add any more.

He called her back.

"Ben? Are you—"

"I'm fine," he said. "It's just Biryani."

"Are you fucking kidding me?" He heard the sound of shuffling. "I ran out of the office like a mad woman for a plate of rice?" An engine roared to life in the background.

Ben glanced at his watch. "You're already in the garage? You must have flown out of there."

"I did," she spat. "I'm coming home."

The line went dead in his ear. She must have been really mad. _She_ usually gave _him_ a hard time for not saying goodbye. He didn't really understand the need. The conversation was over when it was over. He dumped his phone back on the table and returned to his food. Twenty minutes later the front door opened.

Rey shuffled into the kitchen with all the grace of a zombie. Her high heels were missing. Likely discarded by the door. He hated when she did that. It was bad enough her bedroom was a disaster area. She didn't need to leave a mess everywhere else too.

"Shoes."

She shrugged. That wasn't right. She always fought him about the shoes. It was a guaranteed hot button item. She dragged herself onto a stool at the kitchen island and nestled her head in her arms.

"Finish eating," she mumbled.

"I got you korma."

"Not hungry."

Something was definitely wrong. Rey always ate. "What happened to you?"

"I'm done. I'm too tired to fight. I'm too tired to eat. I'm too tired to care that you disappeared in the middle of the night and sailed all the way to Australia for curry." She slid from the stool, dragging herself toward the living room. She reached the sofa and literally flopped over the back, rolling the giraffe snuggie onto her as she fell.

He tore himself away from his food, following the strange creature masquerading as his handler into the living room. "Seriously, what happened?"

"I just want to die."

"Tell me."

"I told your mother to go fuck herself."

Ben threw his head back and laughed. That was the best thing he'd heard all day.

"It's not funny. She told me we are officially out of your drugs and there are no plans for more, not that she'll share with me at least."

"Assume she's lying."

"I did. Then I unloaded on her," Rey groaned. "It wasn't pretty."

He glanced back at his plate of food. If he didn't finish it tonight he wasn't going to get another chance. He'd be on a very strict diet the rest of the week. He was torn between setting it aside so she could sleep and losing his last good meal for a while.

"Don't think about it. Just eat," she said. "Wake me up when you're done."

She threaded her arms into the snuggie, turned onto her side and passed out.

* * *

Jyn woke with an ever increasing sense of dread. They'd been in Montana for three days and every day Cassian repeated the same question.

"Any word?" she muttered to herself, imitating his accent rather uncharitably.

She fiddled with the crystal around her neck and considered not leaving. The bed was warm, with big fluffy pillows and a big fluffy comforter covered in a gaudy, Native American print of a wolf and a mountain. With the light spilling in from her window, she could see the snow-covered trees rising up the side of a mountain beyond. Why shouldn't she stay in bed? She'd done her part, sent the message. That was all that was asked of her.

Unfortunately, her stomach had other ideas. The smells from upstairs hit her. Food. She was suddenly, ravenously hungry. Cocooning herself in her blanket she dashed across the room, her feet chilling every time they made contact with the unfinished wood floors. She shoved her feet in her fuzzy slippers and braced herself for another morning of withering looks from Cassian.

Outside her room was a wide hall with the five other bedrooms on the lower floor, each open and seemingly unoccupied. She took the stairs at the end of the hall and paused when she reached the second floor.

Beyond the large open sitting area on this strange, half floor, the far wall was entirely glass. It offered a stunning view of the mountains beyond. The smell of coffee and starches covered in fat spurred her on. Voices rose up as she reached the top of the stairs and the kitchen at its summit.

"Morning sleepy head," Finn said.

He sat at the long table off to the side of the main kitchen. Poe sat on his right. Cassian across from them. Kato sat in the middle of the table, alone. Kato was turning out to be a very strange man. Jyn suspected he was on the spectrum.

Cassian looked up as she approached. "Any word?"

"No," she replied, keeping her frustration in check as she sat. "I've only just woken up and I'd like to get some food in me before I check."

Poe passed her a mug of coffee. Finn slid the tray of bacon in her direction.

"Every moment we delay—"

"Is a moment the Empire strengthens," Jyn finished, her irritation levels already rising. "Yes, I've heard this story before. I warned you it could take days, weeks to get a response. If I could just _eat_ something, then I'll look."

Cassian put on one of his many grumpy faces, ducking his head over his meal in silence. At least he wasn't going to keep fighting about it. Jyn hoped that might be the end of it until after the meal, but every few minutes he glanced over at her. She tried her best to ignore it, enjoying her bacon and a slice of good old American white bread.

"I made pancakes," Poe offered. "Want one?"

"Yes!" Jyn smiled as he passed her a few. Her smile receded quickly at the venomous look on Cassian's face. "What?"

"He thinks you should check for a response," Kato replied in a flat tone.

"I wasn't asking you!" Jyn snapped.

"Your question was nonspecific. As it did not specify a recipient I thought it best to—"

"Thank you, Kato," she shouted.

"There's no need to shout," Kato replied, falling silent.

"Cassian, please, chill out," Poe said.

"I'm getting really tired of your telling me to chill out," Cassian snapped.

"I'm just saying—"

"I know what you're saying. This may be a fucking vacation to you, but this is my life. I've been on this job for months and I want it done."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Finn hissed.

"None of your fucking business, Stormtrooper."

Finn stood. "You know I'm about done with your shit."

"Woah!" Poe called.

Cassian stood too. "Yeah? Bring it bucket head."

Kato stood as well. He always seemed to be a step behind Cassian when the threat of violence rose.

Jyn vaulted from her seat, storming out of the kitchen. She was done with their shit. All of it. She was leaving.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

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> Special thanks to [@proporgo](https://twitter.com/proporgo) for the beautiful artwork!!!

Jyn stomped back up the stairs from her room, dressed and ready to go. She had every intention of telling Cassian to go to hell, taking Finn and getting the fuck out Montana. Poe could come too if he liked. When she reached the second floor, she thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to take one last look at the mountains before she left.

She slowed, edging closer to the wall of glass and the terrace beyond it. It had been a long time since she'd gotten to see anything quite so beautiful. The cold was bracing on the snow dusted balcony. The smell of pine wafted on the frigid breeze and conifers stretched out for miles in every direction, sloping steadily downward from her vantage point and rising up the mountain behind the house.

The terrace led to a balcony that wrapped around the house and she dipped around the corner so as not to be immediately visible from the second floor. She needed a few minutes away from the madness inside.

Everything was going wrong. For fourteen years she'd managed never to get caught. Her months in Wobani had been a special hell. She never imagined anything could be worse, but walking out of prison, imagining she would find freedom only to be told her father might be alive… that was worse. Jyn had taken to believing he was dead. It was easier not to think of him then. Sending that message had shaken things loose inside her. Old memories and older fears. Now, as the hours ticked by, she wasn't sure which she wanted more, for the message to remain unanswered or for a response.

"Pretty out here, isn't it?"

Jyn spun at the sound of Cassian's voice. "I'm not going to check now, so if you're here to—"

"I came to apologize," Cassian said. He stood on the far end of the balcony, staring down the mountain. "I grew up in a place that was overcrowded, dirty, busy. All I wanted was quiet. That's why I love it out here, there's no one around for miles."

"Is that a threat?"

Cassian sagged. "No. Just a shitty attempt at breaking the ice. Look, I'm sorry. I've been tense because this mission is important to me. I've pushed you too hard, too often these last few days. That's my fault. It won't happen anymore. You have my word."

Jyn considered him for a moment as he stared out into the void. "You're really stressed out and it's stressing the rest of us out."

Cassian chuckled. It was a mirthless sound. "You would be too if you knew."

"Then tell me." Jyn moved closer to him. "You haven't really told me anything. Only that you're looking for my father. Why?"

He sighed. She could see him retreating from the conversation.

"Trust goes both ways," she said, quietly.

He looked over at her, uncertain. After a long pause he spoke. "Your father made a weapon with the ability to destroy on a scale this world had never seen before. It still exists, but no one can access it. Rumor has it your father built a backdoor. A way of destroying it. If the Empire gets their hands on him, they can use the weapon again."

"What kind of destructive power?"

"Have you ever heard of Alderaan?"

"Our modern Atlantis. The island that sank beneath the waves." Jyn shrugged. "Of course I have."

"It wasn't a natural disaster that sunk Alderaan. It was your father's weapon."

The chill cut straight through her. If what he was saying was true, then her father was responsible for the deaths of nearly five million people. She turned, leaning against the railing.

"I get it now," Jyn whispered. "I'll check as soon as we go inside."

"You don't have to. If you can't find him, chances are they won't either." He shrugged. "Once a day, just pick a time. It could take weeks."

She nodded and they fell into an uneasy silence that was interrupted only by the rustling of pine needles in the wind.

"Mexico City," Jyn said.

"What's that?" Cassian asked.

"Your accent. Cultivated. Generic, but when you get frustrated the dialect comes out."

The corner of his mouth twitched. _"Guey?"_

Jyn chuckled.

"What about you? Why London?"

"It was the best choice. Growing up I learned English in the States, but in South America most of the people who spoke English _were_ English. In Europe most people hate Americans, easier to blend in as a Londoner so I stayed there a while. There was a time I thought I might stay forever." She tried not to imagine her happy years of anonymity and was nearly successful. "Forever turned out not to last that long." She rounded on him. "So there, now we've broken the ice. Tell me, Cassian from Mexico City. If you're not a bounty hunter, what are you?"

"That's a bit personal for having just broken the ice."

"You're dodging. Here I'll go first, though I think you know this part. I'm Jyn Erso. I was born in a city in the USSR that doesn't actually exist anymore and I like to think of myself as a grifter. Some would call me a con artist, but I don't like the term. Grifter has a theatricality to it. A certain _je ne sais quoi_. Your turn."

He took a moment to consider her, shrugged and answered. "Cassian Andor. I was actually born in Toluca de Lerdo and I like to think what I do is help people."

"And who would you be helping by finding my father?" She cocked an eyebrow. "A man who presumably helped create one of the most powerful weapons ever built."

"Well, for starters, him."

"How's that?"

"If your father is alive, that makes him the last living scientist to have worked on the super weapon. They will find him. Maybe not for a year or two or five, but they will find him and they will torture him for everything he knows. They know you're alive and they'll come looking for you too. We _can_ protect you."

"This at the cost of my freedom, of course."

"No one is ever really free." He said it with such sadness that it made Jyn look at him, really look at him. The slump of his shoulder, the circles under his eyes, the deep grooves lining his forehead. Whatever Cassian had seen in his life made him truly believe those words.

"I believe we're as free as we want to be."

"A pretty thought, and from a certain point of view, true. But in my line of work I don't see the freedom, only the ropes we tie around ourselves that we call duty."

* * *

The terracotta tiles were warm under Rey's feet as she stepped toward the recessed pool. Steam rose off the water, filling the small bathing chamber with the scent of lavender oil. It was already beginning to relax her. She dipped her toes into the water, testing the temperature. It was absolutely perfect.

One of the great joys of the Alliance's gym were the collection of tubs and saunas on-site. The cold tubs were in the next hall where they kept the rooms chilled and ice on hand. Her favorite were the warm soaks. They gave her time and space to think. For the last couple of days she'd reserved one for an hour each day.

Rey was still trying to figure out what the hell had happened with Ben's aliases. So far she'd gotten no leads, nothing that explained how both had been mysteriously blown in the span of four days.

A racket down the hall startled her.

_BANG!_

It sounded like someone throwing a door too hard. She shrugged, hanging her robe on a peg and stepping down into the tub. As she settled into a sitting position, the water rose around her, coming just up to her shoulders, the back of her neck hitting the padded lip of the pool. Again, perfect. Before she could get comfortable she heard it again.

_BANG!_

Several seconds later, again.

_BANG!_

It was getting closer. There was a long gap, then the door to her stall flew open.

_BANG!_

"What the hell—" She realized what she was staring at and immediately redirected her attention to the wall on her right. "Do you have something, a towel or something…"

Out of the corner of her eye she could see Ben moving closer, fluffy white towel outstretched. "Here, I have a towel."

"Oh god." She leaned in the other direction, now very keen to look at the wall on her left.

"Is everything alright, Rey?"

"Your penis is out in the open and currently at eye level," she seethed. "There is absolutely no way for me to look at you without staring directly into _it_ first. If you would be so kind as to cover it, I would be far less inclined to violence."

"You seem a bit tense." She could hear the laughter in his voice. "I thought you came in here to relax?"

"Ben Solo you have ten seconds to cover your cock or I will castrate you and leave your throbbing remains on your mother's desk. Have I made myself clear?"

"Well, it's not throbbing at the moment, but if you keep talking like that—"

"BEN!"

"Fine. It's covered." He sounded almost sad.

"I don't trust you."

"Good instinct," he chuckled. "But this one time you'll be safe."

She turned her head slowly, testing the limits of her peripheral vision. The towel was in place, but he was just holding it in front of his dick, the rest of him remained woefully overexposed. "What do you want, Ben?"

He smiled. "I wanted to see what all the fuss was about? I know you reserve a bath every once in a while, but you've booked this room for the next two weeks. That's a lot, even for you."

"I do it for solitude."

"Sounds like a good reason," he nodded sagely and stepped down into the tub with her.

She tensed, turning sideways to get her legs out of his way. Thankfully, it was a full immersion tub. More than enough room for both of them to sit if they kept to themselves. Still, it wasn't meant for two. Water sloshed up over the sides, careening into the tiled walls and sending little waves back toward the center of the room. He stretched his long legs out. When she felt toes against her thigh she glared at him.

"Excuse you!"

"Sorry," he said lazily, recalling his wayward appendages. With a great, theatrical sigh he stilled.

"Do you understand the definition of solitude?"

"My last name is Solo. What do you think?"

"I think you're being purposefully obtuse."

"Again, good instinct." He settled lower into the bath, bundling the towel that was supposed to be covering his manhood under his head and closing his eyes. "Very relaxing."

"What do you want, Ben?"

"One question. You answer honestly and I'll leave you alone, you lie and I'm going to barge in on every bath and shower and piss you take until you do."

She believed he would. "Fine. What?"

"Why'd you agree to take this job?"

Rey snorted. "You already know the answer. I do this, I get any job I want."

"Yeah, I believed that these last couple months. I really did. Until this afternoon."

"What changed this afternoon?"

"We got a new assignment. I leave in three days."

"Like hell you do!" Rey jumped up, climbing out of the tub without a second thought.

He chuckled. "Where you going, Johnson?"

"To have words with Amilyn," she spat, reaching for her robe.

"Yeah? With your tits out?"

A wave of panic surged through her and she clutched the robe self-consciously to her chest. It was only mildly embarrassing that she'd made such a stink about his penis only to turn around and give him the same show. In an effort to regain control of the situation she said, "If that's what it takes."

Ben chuckled, closing his eyes. "Get back in the water, Rey. I've already taken care of it."

She froze, now stuck with the possibility of giving him another show. He'd like that.

"I won't look. Just sit down, will you?"

Feeling foolish, she rehung her robe and slid back into the tub. To his credit, he kept his eyes closed the whole time.

"Now you answer my question."

"I have."

He pursed his lips, fixing her with a skeptical look. "You go over my biometrics every day with Dr. Kalonia. None of my handlers did that. Last week you chewed Amilyn out over the drugs. Two days ago, you all but accused my mother of trying to kill me. These are not the actions of a woman who's just in it for the pot of gold at the end. You're jeopardizing everything, why?"

Rey searched the ceiling, trying to find the words that he was least likely to twist around. "My reasons for taking the job haven't changed," she admitted. "I did what I did with the information I had at the time."

"Has your information changed?"

"Yes." She shrugged, pulling her knees up to her chest, still uncertain what he expected to find at the end of this line of inquiry.

"Tell me," he said.

She hesitated.

"Please."

"Sleep," she replied.

"Sleep?"

She nodded. "Growing up sleep was a gamble. I lived years of my life afraid to go to bed at night. Terrified that the monsters out there were coming for me. In a convoluted way, you're the reason I'm here. You're the reason I can go to sleep at night and feel safe. That's still not true for you."

He leaned forward, arms sliding along the tiles as he inched closer. Rey found herself cataloging every detail. How warm the room was, how small the tub was, how large Ben was, how close he was getting, and how very naked they both were.

"That doesn't entirely explain why you stuck your neck out."

"Doesn't it? Is it that hard to believe that decent people still exist?" She rested her chin on her knees, not looking at him. "The things you say at night terrify me. I can't imagine what it's like to have lived them. Whatever happened, you're still living it. You're still holding on and it's destroying you from the inside out. I can't force you to let go. I can't even make you believe that there's a safety net under you. You believe what you see, what you can quantify and prove. So I'll show you the net. I'll keep showing you, until you're ready to let go."

"And in four months?"

She looked up at him then, his intention finally coming into focus. His gaze was fixed on her, searching her face in a slow sweeping arc that was too intense for how close he was. He was uncertain. He purported to trust her, but she could tell that trust only ran so deep. This felt like scratching the surface of a new layer, of breaking through to the person he kept hidden behind the arrogant, caustic, asshole, Agent exterior. That's who was staring at her like her answer would make or break the next few months. The real Ben Solo, whoever that was.

Rey set her shoulders, giving him full, unflinching eye contact. He needed to hear this. He needed to understand that he _could_ trust her. "In four months the safety net doesn't go away. It's always been here, you just fight it. There are three other people at this facility that know everything about what you're going through. At some point in the next few months, I'll take a test that you are hell bent on ensuring I pass. When I do, I become an Agent just like you and the safety net expands. You'll have someone watching your back out there as well as in here. I told you, Ben, I'm not going anywhere."

He slid backward until he hit the edge of the tub. He did not look away, the intensity of his gaze trapping her so that she couldn't have broken away even if she'd wanted to. She didn't want to. She wanted him to see that she meant every word. Silence hung in the air, mingling with the steam and the scented oils. After what felt like an eternity he nodded once and stood.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving you to your solitude." He climbed out of the tub and Rey closed her eyes too late. The image of his twig and berries dangling between his legs was burned into her cornea. He must have turned, seen the pinched look on her face because he started laughing.

"You alright, Johnson?"

"No," she squeaked.

"Johnson?"

"Stop saying my name."

"Don't like the word Johnson?"

"Out!"

"See you at dinner." She heard the door open. "I'm in the mood for sausage tonight."

She leapt from her corner, screaming as she crossed the tub, "God damn you Ben Solo! If you make another dick joke I'm going to smother you in your sleep!"

He beat a hasty retreat, his laughter echoing down the hall until it faded away.

* * *

The longer Rey sat in the tub the less and less she liked the idea of Ben being sent on another mission. It got so bad that she cut her hour short. Five minutes later she was banging on the door of Amilyn's office.

"Come!"

Rey was ready to spit fire when she realized that Amilyn wasn't alone. Leia was standing over her shoulder, both women gazing at the computer screen on Amilyn's desk.

"Told you she'd come," Amilyn said lightly.

Leia rolled her eyes, making her way around the desk to one of the guest seats. "Have a seat," she said with a chuckle. "So whose ass have you come to chew out this time, or is this a two for one special?" She dropped into a free chair, offering Rey the other.

"I'd rather stand," Rey replied, not because she particularly wanted to stand, but because she was losing her nerve. Amilyn she could be more honest with in her frustration. Leia was a different matter entirely and she'd crossed that line once already. She needed to be smarter.

Amilyn seemed to sense her uncertainty and nodded, something of a twinkle flashing in her eye. Rey got the sense then that she wanted Leia to hear this. She wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

"You promised me at least ten days," she said carefully. "Ben's getting six. It's not enough. The drugs will be gone by then. Are you really going to send him into the field without them?"

"We have to," Amilyn replied gently. "There's an event this weekend that we need an Agent to attend. It's a simple operation. Meet a target. Gain intel."

"Then get a Relay to do it."

"It requires an Agent," Leia said, calmly. "The target is meant to be wooed into giving us the intel. Normally we'd send Poe on these, but he's not available. No one else is. Ben's our only free resource."

Rey wanted to argue with Leia, but Ben's words were still ringing in her ears.

_You're jeopardizing everything, why?_

"It's a quick job. Low stress." Amilyn promised. "Go to a party, dance with a pretty girl, access her cell phone. He'll arrive the night before and leave the morning after. No lingering. No big risks."

"I assure you, we wouldn't have taken this course if there were any other alternative." Leia added. "He'll be fine for a couple of days. He's survived worse."

"Survived worse? Are you—" Rey scowled, cutting the words off before they could escape her lips. There was no good down this road.

"Go on," Leia encouraged with a smile. "Let it out. I've been waiting to hear this for a while."

Rey shook her head.

"You have my assurance that anything said in this room today will stay in this room." Leia said. "You get a one-time, free pass to say whatever is on your mind and I won't hold it against you."

"Can I get that in writing?" Rey seethed.

"Speak," Leia replied.

Madness overcame her and the words just flooded out. "You asked me to be his handler because you knew that I could keep up with him. I'm not keeping up and neither is he. I have no information. No resources and I'm managing his condition alone. You won't tell me anything. Worse, he's pushing redline. Sending him out in the field like this could get him killed. Are you willing to take that risk because I'm not."

"I know that you're worried about him. We're doing everything we can to help him with his condition." Leia said in a soothing tone that only served to grate on Rey's nerves.

"Are you?" Rey cocked her head. "Really? Because when I wake up in the middle of the night I can hear the things he says. Drugs aren't going to make whatever trauma he suffered go away."

Leia's eyes narrowed.

Amilyn went pale. "He's verbalizing again?"

"Again?" Rey shook her head, not able to believe what she was hearing.

Amilyn pivoted in her chair, typing furiously into her computer. "Why didn't you come to me with this as soon as it happened? This is serious."

Rey took a deep breath, counting backwards from ten. It wasn't enough. She probably could have counted backward from one hundred and it wouldn't have been enough. "Come to you?" she said more calmly than she could have hoped for. "Why on earth would I come to you? Leia made it very clear that I'm not to talk to anyone about Ben's condition."

Amilyn sagged, fixing Leia with a pleading look.

Leia looked confused, eyes darting across Rey's face. "Have you told Dr. Kalonia about it?"

"You weren't in a mood for debate when we discussed it. You said no one. I heard no one."

Amilyn sighed. "That was a grave oversight on her part. I apologize on her behalf and we're about to fix it."

Rey had never heard Amilyn speak _around_ Leia in that fashion before. From what she'd gathered it was a thing that didn't happen. Leia looked apologetically at Amilyn, giving her the barest nod. The room sealed, the electromagnetic buzz cutting them off from the rest of the facility.

"Tell us everything," Amilyn said.

"His episodes are getting more frequent and worse," Rey began. "It's not just the verbalizing. He's not sleeping more than two or three hours to a dose and not at all without one."

"The drugs weren't meant to be taken daily." Amilyn said.

"I know. Dr. Kalonia knows. Right now it's the only way he'll sleep at all."

"What else?" Amilyn pulled up her tablet. Rey wished she could see what Amilyn was looking at.

"The episodes are getting scarier. At first it was just the noises. Then he started mumbling things. Now he's speaking in his sleep. Saying awful things."

"Such as?"

When Rey didn't immediately reply Amilyn looked up from her tablet. She must have been able to see on Rey's face how scared she was. Not only were they terrifying things to hear, but she was afraid to repeat them.

"It's okay. The more we know the better equipped we'll be to help him. We were there when... When he began treatment. We've been a part of this from the beginning. I should have been keeping a closer eye on it. We all should have and you were never meant to carry this alone. Please, Rey, tell us."

A bitter laugh bubbled out of her. "He says words I don't have any context for. Brendol. Kylo. I recognized Vader and now Ren. There was an incident in Georgia. In the Philippines. He talks to Lor. To Snoke."

What little color was left in Amilyn's cheeks drained away. Leia leaned heavily on her arm rest, covering her mouth with her hands and staring out into space.

"He calls out for Leia, Han, Luke. He shouts the most frightening things I've ever heard, but he never wakes himself up. I've started having nightmares about his nightmares." Rey sighed, the weariness of the last two months weighing her down with each word. "Just look at his biometrics. Too much further down this path and—"

"Thank you, Rey." Leia stood. "You've made your point."

Being cut off rankled, but Rey was smart enough to hold back the bile rising in her throat. "And the assignment?"

"Dr. Kalonia has cleared him, provisionally. We'll be paying extra attention to him at all times and she can pull the plug at any point."

The fiery look in Leia's eye brokered no argument. The pressure in the room changed again, letting Rey know that the conversation was truly over.

As Rey snaked her way through the facility toward the garage she tried not to think about the implications. She'd made her point and still lost this round. Losing the war meant the very real danger of a man losing his life. He may be an asshole most of the time, but she didn't wish on anyone the torture he suffered each night and he certainly didn't deserve to die.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   


Cassian looked up from his book and realized that it was well past three in the morning. An uneasy peace had been brokered over the last few days. Jyn checked for a response once a day at lunch when they were all together. So far there was still no word. Finn still didn't trust him, which was fine, the feeling was mutual. Poe remained the peacemaker and Kato was, Kato.

Jyn was the most surprising to him. She'd opened up a bit since their conversation earlier that week. She kept trying to get him to talk. So far he hadn't been sure what to say, so he'd said nothing. He'd actually been hiding from her. She tended not to disturb him if he was reading so he'd been reading. It was late though and he needed to get some sleep. God only knew when they'd get a response, if they got one at all.

He straightened up a bit before heading down to the second floor and paused, not entirely sure what he was seeing. Someone had rearranged four of the chairs and draped a white blanket over them. Whoever it was, was likely still under there because there was a glow coming from under it and strange shapes danced across the fabric.

Cassian approached, stooping between two chairs and lifting the fabric. A second later he found himself staring into a flashlight bulb.

"Cassian," Jyn said. "You startled me."

He blinked away the spots in his eyes and looked around at the fortress Jyn had built for herself. She was lying on her back staring up at the blank canvas above her. The shapes were gone.

"What are you doing in here?"

"Come have a look." She scooted sideways, patting the wood floor next to her.

"I was just going to bed," Cassian replied.

"Oh don't be an idiot. You've been avoiding me. Just come look. It's about my father."

That caught Cassian's attention. So far Jyn hadn't said anything about the man. This could be an opportunity to get intel on him. With a sigh, he crawled into the makeshift tent and laid down next to Jyn. She shuffled around next to him, placing something on the end of the flashlight, right in the beam. The sheet lit up with what Cassian now realized was a star chart.

He glanced at the flashlight and found Jyn's pendant on the end of it, the light shining through and casting its hidden knowledge around them.

"My father made this for me when I was a little girl. He worked a lot with lasers, but his real expertise was in refraction, light. Apparently he invented a whole technology of storage devices on crystals, just like this one. 5D optical data storage it's called. You can print all sorts of information. Terabytes of it. This was an early prototype. Doesn't hold much. Just a map of the stars."

Cassian watched her as she spoke, her voice hushed, almost reverent as she spoke of her father. She turned the crystal and the stars moved around. He noticed one section of it that was different.

"What's that?" He asked, pointing toward it.

"It's Danish. It says _stjernestøv_, stardust. That's what he used to call me."

"And he made this for you?"

Jyn nodded. "I've been thinking. If he created a way to break into this Death Star, he wouldn't have used conventional technology. He probably made something like this. He used to have dozens of these at home. It's possible that's what you're looking for, which means it's not just a person we need to find. It's an optical storage disk. A small one. Easily hidden."

"Do you know where we might find it?"

Jyn shook her head. "It's been a while, but I know of a few collectors. Some people in the tech community who are interested in early attempts. I could put out a few feelers in the morning."

"Thank you, Jyn."

"I barely remember him now. I can't remember his face or his voice. All I remember is the way he used to whisper to me before bed. _Godnat, stjernestøv. _I remember that so clearly."

Cassian envied her that. His parents died when he was so young he had no memories of them at all. Only of the grandmother who'd raised him.

"My _abuela_ used to sing to me when I was a child. She took me in after my parents were killed."

"What did she sing?"

_"Arrorró mi niño,"_ he replied. It had been so long since he'd thought about his grandmother.

"How does it go?"

Cassian tried to remember, but he could only recall the first little bit. For some reason, he found himself singing. _"Arrorró mi niño, arrorró mi sol, arrorró pedazo, de mi corazón."_

"What was she like? Your gran?" Jyn turned on her side. The constellations disappeared, but she held the light up so it illuminated the enclosed space.

"She was a fighter. A rebel, long before I was born. When my parents died she took up the fight again as a messenger. She was old, but she could cook and no one thought anything of an old lady selling tamales on a street corner. She passed messages around La Ciudad to other rebels."

Jyn nudged his shoulder. "Yeah, but what was she like?"

"She was funny." Cassian chuckled. "Always making people laugh. Even Kato."

"Kato laughs?" Jyn snorted.

"He did for her. She was the only one who could do it."

"She sounds like an incredible woman."

"She was," Cassian replied. "She gave her life to the cause too."

"I'm sorry," Jyn whispered.

"So did your father," Cassian admitted. "He turned on the Empire, fed information to the Alliance."

"I know," Jyn replied. "It got my mother killed."

"She was a fighter too you know." Cassian glanced over at Jyn and realized she hadn't known. "She was the one connected to the Partisans. She brokered your travel to South America. She's the reason Saw came for you."

"I had no idea," Jyn rolled onto her back again staring up at the blank sheet above them. "I envy you. I can never figure out if my parents would have been proud of me or disappointed. I tell myself I don't care. They got themselves killed in someone else's war and left me alone, but I do care."

"Jyn this is everyone's war," Cassian said, as gently as he could. "The Empire gained its power by staying hidden and making people believe they didn't exist. Everyone was affected."

"Some more than others." She sighed. "I just don't know what to think of all this."

"Make your own decision. If you want to fight, fight. If you want to hide, we'll help you hide."

"I don't think I can hide anymore. My father built something that killed millions of people. Then he tried to put it right. You at least fought for something you believed in."

"You're fighting now," Cassian said, reaching for Jyn's arm. "You do what you can. When my _abuela_ was young, she fought. When she was old, she cooked and carried messages. There are many ways to fight, Jyn."

She smiled. "The next time you talk to your _abuela_, thank her for me."

"For what?"

"You got me out of that prison, gave me a second chance." Jyn sat. "You're helping people, so tell her I say thanks." With a sigh, she dumped the flashlight on Cassian chest. "Goodnight, Cassian."

"Goodnight, Jyn."

The flap closed behind her and he watched her shadow descend the stairs. Cassian hadn't spoken to his grandmother in a long time, mostly because he wasn't sure she'd like what he had to say.

* * *

Cold. It was so cold. Ben woke gasping. His skin was ice. Shivering.

"Ben!" His head snapped around. Taking in every detail for signs of danger.

Rey stood over him. Hair damp. Brow furrowed. T-shirt. Ruddy sunlight on her face. Twilight. He could smell soap. Warm and fresh. Steam form the bathroom. He was in his room. Wet. Cold. All the pieces clicked into place and he sighed. She'd dumped a bucket of ice water on him which meant he'd been screaming in his sleep again and she couldn't wake him.

He rolled out of bed, towel already thrust in his direction. He wrapped it around his shoulders.

"How long was I out?"

"Just over two hours. I'd just come out of the shower when I noticed you stirring. I waited to see if you'd sleep it out."

"Fuck!" Ben said, louder than he'd intended and scrubbed the edge of the towel across his face in frustration.

"Get changed. I'll meet you downstairs," Rey said gently.

He hung his wet pants in the bathroom to dry and found another pair before turning his attention to wet bedding. A vinyl pad protected the mattress from being ruined when this waking method was required. He scowled at it every time he had to go through this exercise. Damp sheets in hand, he retrieved the med kit from his nightstand and headed downstairs detouring to the laundry room before meeting Rey in the living room.

She'd made the sofa bed up for him. Two months and she already knew the drill. She was right. His body was building up a tolerance to the drugs. Soon enough things would be back to the way they were before and he wouldn't have to worry about needing a handler in a few months. He wouldn't be fit for field work.

"Headache?" she asked.

"Not this time."

"Good." She reached under the coffee table and held out a bottle of Scotch. "Next best thing, then?"

Ben chuckled. He wouldn't be able to take another dose until the six hour mark. Scotch wouldn't stop the nightmares, but it would make him far less likely to worry about them.

"For a woman who grew up in an Islamic country, you drink a lot."

"Life's little pleasures," she said, pouring two glasses, neat.

"I know a few pleasures we could explore."

"Don't start. I'm too tired for a war of words."

He stepped right into her, taking the glass with one hand and curling the other around her back. "Sounds like an easy win for me."

"No, it just means I'll punch first and ask questions later." She clinked her glass against his and slithered out of his grip, curling into a corner of the sofa-turned-bed. From the back of the sofa, she pulled the giraffe snuggie over her arms and bunched it in her lap. "Come on."

He wasn't sure what brought about the memory, but he thought of Karé Kun. She'd made it a year on spite alone. He'd spent many nights on the sofa under Karé's care. It only served to remind him that this setup had an expiration date. In a few months Rey would be gone.

She frowned at him, pulling her shirt to her nose. "Do I smell bad?"

Ben shook his head.

"Then why are you making that face?"

He chuckled, dropping onto the bed with his head at her feet. "I was just thinking about Kun."

"The one before Wexley?"

He rolled onto his back staring up the line of her calf to her curious expression.

"She's doing very well for herself from what I hear."

"She was a bitch."

"I understand why you didn't like Wexley, and Connix takes a special sort."

He snorted. That was her nice way of saying she didn't much like Kay either.

"But I can't imagine what was wrong with Kun. Her service record is exemplary. She's as anal retentive as you are."

"She didn't follow protocol."

"I doubt that severely," she mused. "I probably break more rules than Karé Kun does."

He scooted against the back of the sofa, taking his first sip of alcohol. She'd been eyeing his glass warily as he rolled around the bed, which was funny because Ben had been in firefights without spilling his drink. He could handle a little rolling around.

"She skipped past the other waking methods. Never even waited for things to get bad. If _she _woke up, _I_ woke up to an ice bath. Every time. No questions asked."

Rey jaw slid open, her whole body leaning toward him. "Are you serious?"

Ben nodded, taking another sip of his drink.

"Why? That's just…" she blinked several times, searching for the right word. "It's cruel."

"It was," he said, quietly. "It was around the time the drugs started to lose their effect too, so it was happening more often. I went to bed every night expecting the ice bath. I don't think it helped."

"That's…" she sighed. "Well now I want to punch her in the face."

"Get it on camera would you? I'll play it every time I'm in a bad mood."

"So every day then?"

"Every hour at least."

"At least." Rey was smiling, the lines around her eyes deepening. Four days was not enough for her to catch up on the sleep he'd been depriving her of. He could see how much it cost to stay up with him.

"You can go to bed. I'll be alright on my own."

"After that story? I'm not going anywhere until your next dose. You're going to remember me fondly."

"The woman who went round for round with my mother, _twice!_" Ben smiled. "I already do."

"Can I get that in writing? The next time you start yelling at me I'm going to shove it your face."

"Deny, deny, deny." He took another sip of his Scotch.

Rey adjusted again, leaning her arm and head against the back of the sofa. "The others weren't that bad were they?"

"She was the worst, but she also lasted the longest. Neither Wexley or Connix would administer. They waited and cleaned up after me. Kay would sit with me sometimes, in the beginning," he chuckled, "but after a while I think she hated me so much she wanted to be out of the room as quickly as possible."

"Hm, I wonder why?" she said into the rim of glass.

"Can't imagine why? I'm a joy to be around."

Rey rolled her eyes. "What about Bridger?"

"Bridger's a bleeding heart. I don't know where my mother found him. He was the only one who was kind, but the first time I had an episode it scared the crap out of him." He shook his head. "Didn't last long after that. He didn't have the stomach for this job."

"I'm sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry for? You're probably the only one who shouldn't be apologizing."

"It's called empathy. You should try it out some time."

He sniffed. "Sounds obnoxious."

"Well then it will fit right in with your personality."

Ben scooted lower, leaning his head back. "Why are you being such a pain in the ass? I'm trying to be nice to you."

"I noticed. Stop. It's disturbing."

"You want me to be an asshole?"

She poked his shoulder. "We can't both be nice to each other. That's just weird."

He drained his glass. "Where'd you hide the booze?"

"One second."

Rey twisted around and leaned over the arm of the chair giving Ben a complete view of her ass in her tiny night shorts. He ran a knuckle up the back of her thigh. She squeaked, kicking him in the ribs before turning back.

"Your hands are freezing." She kicked him once more for good measure before pulling the spare quilt off the back of the sofa and tossing it in his general direction. "Cover up."

"You're just afraid if you keep staring at my chest you'll be so overcome with lust you won't be able to stop yourself."

"Oh yes!" She kicked his thigh. "I'm terrified." She kicked him again. "Whatever will I do."

Ben grabbed her foot the last time tugging hard. She lurched toward him, bottle in hand. He caught it and her easily, angling her into his lap. She kept a tense distance from him.

"I will get punchy," she warned, smiling easily but keeping her elbow locked on the back of the sofa.

"I can take a punch," he replied, leaning closer.

The peaty aroma of the scotch mingled with the scent of Rey's shampoo. Color was rushing up her neck the way it had in the bath, contradicting the stony look in her eyes. She was warm and wonderfully close, the snuggie every bit as soft under his fingers as she'd described it. He wondered if, in his absence, she really had run it over her bare skin. He slid his hands around to her back, pulling her into him.

"Stop," she demanded.

He froze. For an instant they were both trapped, neither moving forward, but neither taking the step back. After a second she blinked and sat back on her heels. She reached behind her for the glass pressed into the small of her back. He gave it willing and watched her as she poured. The subtle tremor in her arms, the stiffness in her back, the annoyed smile she was failing so spectacularly at hiding.

He'd never really considered what would happen if she gave in to his advances. He knew what he would do – what _they_ would do – but it had been a game for months; a way of pushing her to build a thicker skin. How long could they play this game? For the first time, he found himself wondering if she'd ever considered it seriously. A full glass appeared under his nose, tearing him from his thoughts.

"No more of that. Promise me."

He smiled. "Not a promise I'm willing to make."

"Truce until sunrise."

"Midnight," he countered.

"Sunrise."

"Two AM," he tried.

"Sunrise."

"You obviously don't understand how negotiations work."

"Sunrise," she said firmly.

Ben looked through the glass to the darkening circles under her eyes. "Sunrise."

She crawled out of his lap, returning the bottle to the floor. This time he looked but did not touch.

"I say we watch a movie. Something long and preferably narcolepsy inducing. Ever seen the Lord of the Rings films?"

"I boycotted them, on principal."

She narrowed her eyes. "You're one of _those_. Well you're in luck, Rose uploaded the extended cuts to the network."

"I think I'll go sleep in my wet bed." He moved toward the edge of the mattress.

"Oh no you don't." She grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back. "If this doesn't put you to sleep, nothing will."

Ben hadn't been entirely forthcoming with Rey. He'd caught bits and pieces of the various Tolkien adaptations before. Mostly in hotel rooms. When his brain function deteriorated past the point of exhaustion but sleep still eluded him, he often resorted to channel surfing. At the very least it filled the silence.

He laid down, angling his body sideways so he could watch and hoped that she was right about the films' narcoleptic properties. They hadn't worked in the past but he wasn't going to burst her bubble. Not when she was trying so hard.

He was still awake when the Hobbits made it to Bree. Rey wasn't. She was snoring softly, huddled into the corner of the sofa.

"Rey?"

"Hm?"

"Why don't you go up to your room?"

"Hm." She adjusted herself and passed back out.

He tugged at her foot. "Rey, wake up."

She blinked sleepily at him. "Is it over?"

"No. Go to bed."

"Can't." She shook her head. "Have to give you your next dose."

"I'll be fine."

She shook her head again, scooting down onto the mattress. "Just wake me when it's time."

She pulled a pillow under her head and fell back to sleep. He didn't have the heart to wake her again so he let her be. She fussed a great deal in her sleep, tossing and turning every few minutes. Around Weathertop she pulled the quilt right off him, cocooning herself in a single, practiced roll. At the council meeting she knocked his arm out from under his head.

They were a poor substitute for the books, but Ben was entertained enough to keep going. He spun the second part of the extended cut and settled onto his back to watch the rest of it. It was outside the Doors of Durin that Rey rolled into him, nestling into his side. Her warm breath on his chest. When the Watcher in the Water began to screech she fussed, pressing deeper into him. He put his arm around her, rubbing soothing circles into her back until she stilled.

As the fellowship made their way into Moria, Ben felt his eyes growing heavy. The eerie chanting and dreamlike violins lulling him into sleep.

* * *

Rey's consciousness slowly floated up from the comfort of sleep. She was in the place – between where dreams were indistinguishable from reality. She remembered the sound that kept repeating itself over and over in her dreams. As the world became clearer she realized it was her alarm, but she couldn't hear it anymore. She sensed movement and rolled away groaning. The sudden absence of warmth made her scramble to replace the covers she'd moved when she rolled.

Noise was coming from somewhere nearby. Cabinets opening. The refrigerator door. Pans clinking. They were too loud, too close. She was still in the living room, having fallen asleep there the night before. It hit her like a freight train. The movement. The warmth. The lingering dreams of arms around her and warm breath on her neck. She'd fallen asleep in the living room. She'd fallen asleep next to Ben.

The last of the grogginess burned away in a rush, her eyes flying open, scanning the mattress for her phone. It was already morning. They had to get to work. He was leaving in seventeen hours and they still had a mountain of shit to do… and she'd fallen asleep with him on the sofa. If he was insufferable in his flirtations before he was going to be outrageous in future.

"Good morning," he called from the kitchen. "Go get dressed, I'll take care of breakfast."

She climbed up to the rear of the sofa, staring over it into the kitchen. "Did you administer your second dose without waking me?"

"No," he said, meandering the kitchen placidly.

"Are you lying to me?"

He paused, fixing her with an annoyed frown. "It should still be on the table."

Rey spun around, scanning the coffee table. The vial's top remained unpunctured, the syringe still sealed in its bag. She flipped through her phone for his vitals. What she saw made her fall heavily onto the sofa.

"This can't be right," she muttered.

He'd slept a good six, nearly seven hours uninterrupted. Deep sleep and REM cycles were normal. His heart rate had even dipped into the _low_ fifties for a time. She'd never seen it down that far. There was still far more wake time than there should be, but he'd gotten real, restful sleep. "Ben, have you seen this?"

"Yup," he replied, still scurrying about the kitchen completely unfazed.

She shook her head. "Maybe Lord of the Rings is your new super drug."

He set a pan on the stove, clicked the burner on the range until the flame lit and snickered. "Or you."

That made her stop cold.

"Calm down. I'm not going to sneak into your room at night."

"You'd better not. I'll fucking kill you."

"At least I'll die in my sleep. It would be poetic, really." He cracked an egg into the pan. "Go get dressed. Breakfast will be ready in a minute."

* * *

"You know I can't tell you anything Kay-Co," Poe groaned, moving his phone from one ear to the other so he could open the bottom drawer of his dresser. "Leia would have me gelded if I did. I'm not even supposed to call you."

"I know, I know," Kay replied. "Can you at least tell me about Carver? How's it going? Is he still as gorgeous as he looks?"

"I don't think you're his type, Kay." Poe heard the bed creaking under her and would have liked nothing more than to crawl into it beside her.

"Really? Tell me everything."

He chuckled. "Nothing to tell."

"I sense a 'yet' coming."

"Well, he is still as gorgeous as he looks."

"I knew it!" The bed squeaked again and he could just see Kay falling back onto it, kicking her legs in delight. "You listen to me very carefully Poe Dameron. You get that sweet ass out there and you carve yourself off a slice of chocolate cake and when you get back here I want to know _everything_! Do you hear me? Everything!"

"I'll see what I can do." Poe heard movement out in the hall. "Hey, I gotta let you go."

"Oh don't stop on my account," Finn said, leaning into the doorframe. "I'm very curious to know who's still as gorgeous as he looks."

Poe cocked an eyebrow. "Eavesdropping is rude."

"Eavesdropping is a survival mechanism." Finn strode across the room and dropped face first onto the bed. "Please, save me."

Poe kicked the draw closed and leaned against the dresser. "They're not fighting again, are they?"

"No. Worse. They're flirting now."

"Really?" Poe smiled. Maybe all Cassian needed was a little stress relief. It certainly couldn't hurt.

Finn rolled onto his back, spreading out across the bed. He certainly looked enticing in that position, but Poe had a job to do and the work always came first.

"It's painful to watch, especially with the android jumping in every five minutes."

Poe snorted. "You get used to Kato."

"I don't _want_ to get used to him."

"Then go." Poe shrugged. "No sense in everyone being miserable."

"Are you trying to get rid of me Dameron?" Finn was smiling, but Poe could sense the underlying current of mistrust.

"Far from it. You're the only person here I like." Poe pushed off the dresser, taking a seat next to FInn on the bed. "Jyn's alright, but this thing with her dad has her on edge. Kato and Cassian, well… I wouldn't go drinking with them."

"I wouldn't go anywhere with them, given my druthers."

Poe turned. Finn had thrown an arm over his face, his thermal riding up just slightly. "They're not that bad."

"Depends on what we're discussing. Drinking buddies? Nah. But using a man's daughter against him? That's something the Empire did."

"We're not using Jyn against Galen Erso. We—"

"_You're_ not. But Andor might." Finn sat suddenly, scanning Poe's face for a reaction. "And there it is. You can't deny it because it's true. He'll do whatever he needs to do to make sure the Ersos doesn't end up under the Empire's thumb a second time. That's why I'm still here, Poe. To make sure it doesn't come to that. Jyn is my friend and she has no fucking idea what's really happening here."

It had been bothering Poe for days. Finn knew way too much for a run of the mill Stormtrooper. He couldn't ask the question on his mind outright, but he could dig a little deeper.

"I've been meaning to ask you something."

Finn sighed, falling back onto the bed. "Fire away."

"What division were you in?"

"I suppose I walked into this one."

"You could go back upstairs and watch Kato cockblock Cassian." Poe chuckled.

Finn snorted. "Anything is better than that." He sat up with a groan. "Sanitation."

The word was out of Poe's mouth before he could stop it. "Bullshit."

"Hear me out." Finn smiled. "My first assignment I refused to pull the trigger. I was scrubbed out of the program." When Poe's cynical expression did not budge, he continued. "I had the same training and clearance as any other Stormtrooper, but I cleaned the trash bins and mopped the floors. People looked right past me. Said things they shouldn't. Left things out where I could see them. Eavesdropping is a survival mechanism." He shrugged. "It's also the reason I flew under the radar after the war was over. I wasn't a registered enemy combatant. No one was looking for me."

"You know I'm gonna check your story right? That's…"

"Hard to swallow, I know." A look passed over Finn that Poe couldn't quite read. "You _should_ check my story. Let me know what your princess chooses to share with you." He slid off the bed, heading for the door.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Finn turned in the doorway, a toothy grin on his face. "You tell me."

An hour later, Poe found himself on the phone with Kay again. Strictly speaking she didn't have the clearance, nor should she be accessing these files, but he needed to know.

"It all checks out. At sixteen he failed to fire on a group of villagers in Tuanul. Cited issues with his blaster, but the blaster was clean. Sent for reconditioning. Six months later, transferred to sanitation. Stayed there until the war was over."

"So he was never an enemy combatant. He never killed anyone during the war?" Poe needed to hear the words.

"His file says he didn't. Registered kills, zero."

Finn had told him the truth. Would wonders never cease.

"Be careful, Poe. Leia has me following up on the RDR files and one his aliases flagged. He's an account holder. It's not a small amount either. Think about what you've seen, what you know. No field experience, but he managed to stay well off our radar for six years. That doesn't sound like standard Stormtrooper training."

"How'd you get so smart?"

"I had a good teacher."

Poe nodded. "You're right. I'll be careful."

"You better. Anything else?"

"No, Kay-Co. Thanks."

"Any time." She made kissing noises into the receiver. "See you soon."

The line went dead in Poe's ear and he wondered if he should touch base with Artie too. Sometimes the old bastard knew things that the Alliance didn't.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
  


Finn could never really wrap his mind around the concept of 'Taco Tuesday.' He especially couldn't understand how a gods-honest Mexican could support the idea of bastardizing his own culture for a Tex-Mex gimmick. That was why it was so strange to see the Mexican-born man and his Mexican-raised best friend (Finn strained to call Kato a _man_) flit around the kitchen like a couple of Yucatecan housewives preparing for a family dinner.

Things had calmed significantly in the last few days and Cassian was, dare Finn think it, normal. There had still been no response to Jyn's message, but everyone was feeling far less stressed about it. They'd all agreed that if no response was forthcoming within two weeks they'd go their separate ways. Strictly speaking, he didn't have to stick around any longer. Jyn had already agreed to go into the protection racket, so there was no more need for him. Cassian remained the preeminent issue.

"Smells good in here," Jyn said, dropping into a seat next to Finn at the dinner table.

_"Gracias,"_ Kato replied in his perfect Spanish.

"What's for dinner?" Jyn asked.

Before Cassian could reply, Kato's head popped up. _"Tamales." _He said. Then he smiled. It was only a little creepy.

Jyn grinned. "Kato, did you learn to cook _tamales_ from Cassian's grandmother?"

"I have always been very good at it," Kato replied.

Jyn smirked at Finn. "Where's your boyfriend?"

"Talking to his woman," Finn replied. Jyn knew him too well.

A pair of hands clapped him on the back. "Not anymore."

"Everyone's here then?" Jyn pulled her phone out of her pocket. "Time for another disappointment." She dialed the number from memory, pulling the phone to her ear, waiting as it rang.

The messaging service had a long series of prompts and codes that needed to be entered. They were scrambled every day and new login codes were only sent upon request and following a lengthy verification process that could take several hours. Jyn went through the process and though Cassian kept himself busy in the kitchen, Finn could see him watching out of the corner of his eye.

Jyn sniffed, bored, waiting. She tapped in a few more numbers and lifted the phone to her ear again. Her head popped up, back going rigid, face turning pale. Her brow began to furrow. Slowly, she lowered the phone to the table.

"I got a response."

Cassian zipped across the room, eyes darting all over Jyn's face. "Yeah?"

"He responded," she looked up at Cassian across the table. "My father's alive."

Cassian sat, taking her hand across the table. "Are you alright?"

For a fraction of a second Jyn hesitated, the haunted look in her eyes melted away and she smiled. "My father's alive!"

Cassian nodded encouragingly.

"My father's alive!" Jyn jumped out her seat. "Let's go get him!"

"After dinner," Kato said, and promptly returned to wrapping _tamales_.

* * *

Ben leaned back into his seat on the plane, adjusting the wires strapped to his chest so that they weren't tangled under his arm. Dr. Kalonia was being extra careful on this one. His anomalous good night's sleep a fluke. The doctor said it was most likely his body's desperate need for it that caused the episode. It was, in itself, a good sign. It meant that the long years of sleep issues hadn't pushed his body into complete insomnia. He could still fall asleep on his own, but there was no good explanation for why it had happened.

Well, there was _one_ and Ben had gotten the tiniest concession out of Dr. Kalonia that co-sleeping _might_ have had a positive impact on the situation. He'd dropped this in conversation sparingly so far, but when he got back, he was definitely going to push Rey's buttons.

She sat across from him, fidgeting with the med kit, obviously pissed off at the entire world that he was leaving. She'd been very vocal with her displeasure and it didn't seem to be going away any time soon.

"Roll up your sleeve," she said, tersely.

He unbuttoned his left shirt sleeve, sliding it up his arm. Rey tutted at him and pulled the sleeve down again, folding it neatly so that it formed a cuff above his elbow. He didn't bother hiding his amusement.

"This isn't funny," she fumed.

"It's less than seventy two hours. I'll be fine."

"You're close to redline. You shouldn't be anywhere near a job right now."

"The doctor approved it."

"She was coerced," Rey spat, reaching for the tourniquet.

"Wait." Ben worked the black ring off his index finger, offering it to her.

All the wind seemed to fly out of her sails as she stared at it.

"One lucky shot," she mumbled, eyes still on the ring perched between Ben's fingertips. "One five second hesitation. One mistake, just one. That's all it will take, Ben."

"It's just dirt," he found himself saying, an incomprehensible reaction to the look in her eye. "What makes it special is how that dirt went from raw earth to one of the hardest substances on earth. Intense pressure. The hottest fires known to man. Violent, chaotic destruction."

He reached around her to unclasp her necklace, sliding it free from her blouse. Reverently, he looped the chain through the band where it slid to meet her Faravahar icon. Returning the necklace to its place around her neck, he continued.

"It doesn't matter where you started. It's what life puts you through. Either you crack under the pressure or you become strong enough to take it. I went through hell. I wouldn't let it break me. This is my reminder that I'm strong enough to survive anything."

He could see the war waging inside her. Anger, fear, curiosity and uncertainty all churning in her mind. He wondered how long it had taken him to figure her out. He hadn't realized how closely he was paying attention to her little tells.

"What happened?" she finally asked.

"I can't tell you and trust me, you don't want to know."

"But—"

"I know you're angry at all of us, but they _are_ trying to help me. My mother, Amilyn, Harter most of all. Believe it or not field work keeps the worst of it at bay. That's why I take the difficult assignments. That's why I work so hard. That's why it's so hard for me to keep a handler."

She touched the ring on her chest, shaking her head. "You're not paying attention."

A strange sound made its way out of Ben's throat. He'd never heard himself make it before. A sort of choked, unsettled laugh. Rey Johnson, still so full of surprises.

"This caustic exterior of yours, you're keeping that hell fire burning. In order for this clump of dirt to have become a stone the pressure had to abate, the fire had to cool, someone had to shape it. You're still burning too hot. Eventually you _will_ crack. I don't know what happened and I'm starting to get the sense I never will but you're still holding onto it. You're not obsidian yet. You won't be until you let it go, Ben."

"And you'll be there to catch me?" he sniped.

"Don't sound so surprised," she smiled. "I've caught heavier."

Ben threw his head back, and laughed.

* * *

Ben slipped his arms into a crisp, black dress shirt, checking his reflection in the bathroom mirror as he worked the buttons. He glanced at his phone where it sat on the hotel's white and grey marble countertops. They were still an hour out. Rey was about due to get on the comms and start harassing him. Normally she would be on the line early, but with all the madness surrounding his health, she'd been working closely with the doctor to monitor him.

If he were being honest with himself, he would acknowledge that he was tired. The last of the meds barely put him down for an hour. All their careful scheming about trying to get him to sleep a little on the plane had come to naught. But Ben was rarely that honest with himself. He'd survive. He'd survived much, much worse.

Adjusting his belt, he checked in the mirror to make sure the shirt was tucked in neatly around the back. Everything looked good. He reached for his tie. Black on black on black never failed to impress. As he was looping the tie through a second time his phone trilled on the bathroom countertop.

_There she is,_ he thought, then wondered why she was calling his cell. He slid the little green dot on the screen to answer.

"Shouldn't you be on comms?" he asked.

"The teams are joining the line now and this is slightly sensitive information."

He tugged the end of the tie taught and slid the double Windsor knot into place. "Am I still clear for the op?"

"Yes, Harter wants you to take it easy in there. No alcohol, no caffeine—"

"Too late," he replied, glancing at the mug by his phone.

"No _more_ caffeine."

Ben took another sip of his coffee. "Sure thing."

"You're drinking coffee right now, aren't you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"You redirect questions with questions when you're being petulant."

"I know," he replied. "What else is on my restrictions list?"

"She also wants you to eat something of substance before you go. Did you order room service?"

"I did."

"You know I'm going to check."

"Let me save you the trouble." Ben scooped the phone off the counter and stomped out into his hotel room. He snapped a quick picture of his mostly eaten dinner and sent it to her. "There. Evidence."

"Good," she cleared her throat. "Then there is the matter of your objective."

He plopped down on the bed, smiling as he took the phone off speaker and pulled it to his ear. "Ah, yes. My objective. My mother mentioned that you were concerned about my ability to achieve or maintain an erection in my current state."

"It is a legitimate, medical concern and I'm not the one who mentioned it to Leia, Dr. Kalonia did. I simply reinforced that it would impact your ability to perform this operation successfully."

"Your attention to my _performance_ is duly noted."

"I'm asking you, please, let's not make this more awkward than it has to be."

There was a subtle strain in her voice. A tension that wasn't there a minute ago. The pieces tumbled into place, painting a picture so obvious he felt stupid for missing it.

"You have to watch?"

"I do not have to watch!" she said in a rush. "But yes, I have to maintain contact during the whole operation, regardless of where it may lead."

Ben chuckled. There was some level of privacy afforded them when sexual contact was required on assignment. The support teams dropped off and the handler moved into a quiet room along the gallery. They were in no way required to remain on the line, though comms and optics remained active and recording in case of emergency. Both the times Ben had done it during Rey's tenure, she'd stepped away. Not this time.

"So if you're not going to watch, how are you going to monitor me?"

"I'll watch your vitals and remain on comms."

"Oh," he breathed, dropping his voice as deep as it would go. "I'm looking forward to it."

The line went dead in his ear. He hadn't intended to go for the Full Monty on this job. It wasn't necessary. All he needed to do was make a copy of a cell phone. That could be done by getting close to her purse. He didn't even need to talk to the mark, but this was too good an opportunity to pass up.

* * *

Everyone in The Pit looked on as the mark, Yuriko, fumbled with her key card. She was distracted by the man behind her, kissing her neck and clawing at her thighs through her cocktail dress. The light on the door turned green and Ben growled in the woman's ear. It was time to pull the plug.

"Show's over folks," Rey called, ending the shared call. She transferred control to her tablet and collected her things.

Kay gave her a thumbs up. She'd been trying for encouraging all night, even offered to sit in for Rey. Kay was cleared, having dealt with Ben's condition in the past, but Leia wanted to keep the seriousness of his state quiet. Dr. Kalonia had made a few threats about pulling Ben out of the field on medical, but there were strict parameters for that, and while Ben was toeing that line, he had yet to cross it.

With great effort and a whole lot of necking going on in her ear, Rey moved into a quiet room in the gallery and shuttered up so no one could sneak a peek. The glass windows darkened, the holo in the center of the desk activated and she watched as Ben's optics fed her a steady stream of glances at Yuriko's tits.

Ben's jacket was the first thing to go, followed by Yuriko's dress. When she reached for his belt, Rey decided it was a good time to check out.

"Switching to comms-only," she said.

A few seconds later he tapped a confirmation into the face of his watch.

"Confirmation received." She muted the line so at least she could chortle without distracting him.

If it were possible, it was even more lewd just listening. At least the visuals were disorienting. Rey didn't realize how much time people spent with their eyes closed while they were kissing. As a trained Agent, Ben was very skilled at surreptitiously sneaking glances at important details. The street address of the hotel. Staff and all exits as he made his way through the lobby. Her room number. The design of the locking mechanisms. All this while keeping in close contact with his mark, never once giving himself away.

Rey would have been impressed if she hadn't been so dreading what came next. He didn't have to do this. He'd already made a copy of the phone's hard drive. She knew for a damn fact he was doing it just to get under her skin. Unfortunately, it was working. The panting and sucking noises were making her flustered. To distract herself she checked his vitals. Sex was definitely a bad idea in his state. Heart rate, O2 levels and blood pressure were all climbing in line with sexual arousal. She prayed to god he didn't have a stroke in the middle of going down on this woman. It occurred to her then that she might have to listen to him going down on this woman.

She heard a huff, in her ear, the creaking of mattress springs.

"You're so beautiful," Ben said.

Rey rolled her eyes.

"Like sunshine."

Yuriko giggled.

Rey unmuted the line. "You're a sick bastard, you know that?"

Ben hummed in her ear, deep and rich, whispering, "May I call you sunshine?"

Rey muted the line again, spinning away from the desk with a snort. Yuriko was moaning now and despite her frustration Rey was developing a picture of the whole thing in her mind. Ben hovering on top, hands sliding between her legs. Rey could hear every hitch of Ben's breath, every stifled grunt.

She glanced at the screens with their steady feed of information on Ben's vitals. Yuriko must be touching _him_ now. Reaching into his pants. He was gasping in Rey's ear and she remembered warm breath on her neck, strong arms at her waist, the weight of him pressed against her back. She could feel his fingers curling in her palm. Rough, but gentle as they danced across her skin. The room was getting warmer. Her breathing more labored.

She could see the scene in Tokyo in her mind. The dark blue curtains lit in the half light from the bedside lamp. The brightly patterned bedspread with two bodies writhing on it. Only she wasn't seeing Yuriko anymore.

"Does that feel good, sunshine?" Ben whispered.

All at once reality came crashing back to Rey, she reached for the button to reactivate the comms.

"What the fuck?" Yuriko shouted.

New voices rose up in the room. Rey hit the comms button and turned on optics.

"Sunshine?" Ben whispered, the thread of tension in his voice letting Rey know this was no longer a game.

"I'm here," Rey replied. "Optics online."

Facial recognition identified them quickly and Rey had a damn good idea of what they were looking for.

"They're Kanji Klub. Probably sent to retrieve the boss' mistress."

Ben made a break for it, darting past the three men and into the hall without incident. He took off at a run.

"Stairwell on your left." She looped in the group line. "I need an extraction point, ASAP!"

She got an immediate response, but Ben wouldn't hear it. Comms were still set to private.

"There's a parking structure on the north side of the block. Hacking it now. You'll have a vehicle waiting for you when you arrive."

Rey checked the cameras. No one was following him. They must have been more interested in the girl than in Ben, which was good because in his state a fist fight could be deadly. She glanced at his vitals and the world around her stilled. He was hitting redline. Arousal and adrenaline were a bad mix.

Tier two pinged on her screen. They were pulling a car out of storage. Engine was hot. All he needed to do was get in.

"Blue BMW seven series. No hostiles in pursuit."

"My phone," he gasped, reaching the garage. "In my jacket."

He'd left it in the hotel when he ran.

"We'll kill it." She typed the request to tech and scanned his vitals again. "Don't worry about that," she said calmly. "Get in the car, Ben. Breathe."

He threw himself into the driver's seat, and pulled out of the garage without incident. When he pulled onto the highway she felt comfortable moving back into The Pit.

"I've set your extraction point on tracker one," she said, shouldering open the door.

Leia was standing at the railing waiting for her, her face pale as a sheet. The look of fear in her eyes reminded Rey that despite everything, Ben was still her son and he wasn't out of the woods yet. Rey would not be the one to say I told you so. The doctor would do that.

Alarms began to sound before Rey made it to her desk. Flashing alerts filled her tablet. Ben was crashing. His blood pressure was tanking and his heart was beating too fast.

"Ben? Ben talk to me?"

She watched him blink in slow motion. He muttered incomprehensibly. For the second time in one night the whole world seemed to turn thick as molasses. In slow motion, she watched Ben's eyes close and his car drift out of its lane, spinning like a top.

* * *

They were gathered around the table going over the plans a final time. Jyn could feel the tension in the room seeping into her muscles.

"Hera is on her way," Cassian leaned over the table, scanning the hologram of the plans with keen eyes. "We have three hours to clear out. Anything left behind will be destroyed by sanitation crews."

Jyn noted the playful smile that Poe gave Finn.

"Is everyone clear on the plan?"

Jyn's heart began pounding in her chest. She had only one more question, but hadn't wanted to interrupt the peace of the last few days. Now, there was no more time.

"I have one."

Cassian nodded.

"What is your goal here, Cass?"

"Get in, get your father, get out." He shrugged.

"And what _exactly_ do you mean by _'get_' my father?" A long, uneasy silence settled in around them. She turned her head to Kato. "What? You're not going to answer for him this time?"

"The missions parameters are non-specific," Kato replied.

"So what you're saying is killing my father isn't entirely off the table, but it's not entirely on at the moment either?"

"Precisely," Kato said with a nod.

"Kato," Cassian hissed.

"Jyn," Poe started.

Finn immediately cut him off. "No. I want to hear this."

If looks alone could kill, the one Cassian was giving Finn was the equivalent of a nuclear explosion, but Cassian was trapped. It was time to shit or get off the pot.

"Well?" Jyn asked. "Are you going to kill my father?"

Cassian's head turned slowly back in her direction. She could see the faint tremor of rage running through him. "That's up to you."

"Oh? Is this one of those blackmail schemes?" She leaned back in her chair, placing her feet on the table. It was a bit over the top, but it made her feel better. "I do as I'm told and no one has to die?"

"No," Cassian replied, rather sharper than he needed to considering his position in the conversation. He took a deep breath. "If anyone else goes in there, your father will more than likely walk. He doesn't know any of us, has no reason to trust us. I need him to come willingly so that we can keep him away from the First Order. That means I need you. You're the only one who has a snowball's chance of convincing him to come. Any other way and my _only_ option is a bullet."

Out of the corner of her eyes she saw Finn frown. That couldn't be good.

"And if I can't?"

"You must!"

"If I can't. If he doesn't listen to me."

Cassian shook his head. "Jyn, please—"

"Will you do it? Would you murder my father in cold blood, right in front of me?"

At that point Cassian was so worked up she could see his clenched fist shaking at his side. He closed his eyes, clenched his jaw and ground out the word, "No."

She turned to Finn, who nodded. He was telling the truth. Jyn sighed. "Thank you."

Without another word Cassian stormed off.

"He'll kill you first," Kato said.

Cassian's stomping stopped halfway down the stairwell behind her.

"If you fail and you can't get your father to come with, he'll shoot you first so you don't have to watch."

Jyn spun around in her seat, nearly falling out of it. She raced for the stairs finding Cassian still frozen in his descent. He turned to face her. The certainty she'd seen moments ago was gone. He understood the terrible choice he would have to make if she failed and in his eyes she saw that he wasn't sure he could make it.

* * *

Cassian paced his hotel room, but he couldn't sleep. The hardest nights of his life were the ones before difficult missions, where the stakes were high and the whole world felt like it was holding its breath waiting for a blow. Jyn hadn't spoken to him the whole plane ride. He'd been going through it in his mind, over and over again. He had no idea what he was going to do if she failed.

Never in his life had he hesitated to pull the trigger. Regret. Shame. Doubt. All those things came later. The job had to come first. Now he wasn't so sure he could.

"Cassian."

He looked up at the sound of his name. Kato was sitting up in bed.

"Your pacing is making it difficult to sleep."

Cassian nodded. "I'll go outside."

Before he reached the door Kato stopped him. "I can do it if you'd prefer."

Cassian stopped, knowing full well what Kato was implying. "No. We're not killing her."

"It would be more efficient. Kill her now. Kill Galen Erso tomorrow. No loose ends."

"No. We have to give her the chance."

Kato frowned. "Would you like to know the odds of both of them ending up in enemy hands?"

Cassian left the room before Kato could give them. He _really_ didn't want to know.

At the bar in the hotel lobby he ordered two tequilas and wandered out onto the beach. It was stupid, but if this was going to be Jyn's last night on earth, the Alliance could at least put her up in a nice hotel. He'd made sure she got the ocean view. It did nothing to assuage his conscience, the spite was helping, though.

What little joy he got from it evaporated when he saw her sitting in the sand, Finn at her side. If anyone had earned a bullet, it was the Stormtrooper. Cassian didn't believe for a second Finn was a non-combatant. He'd been watching the man very closely and everything about FN-2187 screamed dangerous.

The way he loitered in hallways. The places in his room he kept his weapons. The way he watched each of them move without attracting attention. The way he walked. The way he stood. That man was a trained killer pretending to be something else. Cassian had spent a lifetime with men like him. The stain didn't wash out no matter how hard you scrubbed. Poe didn't see it because he didn't want to. Cassian did.

He found a spot in a corner of the hotel's rear sitting area, nice and dark and out of the way. If either of them returned to their rooms, they'd have to look very carefully to notice him. Which is exactly what Finn did when he left Jyn on the sand alone.

_Former Stormtrooper my ass,_ Cassian thought. That was a man who had not forgotten his training.

Cassian sat for a while longer, knowing he needed to talk to Jyn, but completely at a loss for what to say. He probably would have sat there all night, but his phone buzzed in his pocket. It was Jyn. She wanted to talk. Prepared or not, he downed his tequila and made his way onto the sand.

"That was quick," she said, flatly. "How long have you been down here?"

"Not long." Cassian took a seat next to her. "I saw you with Finn. I didn't want to interrupt."

"How polite of you."

"Jyn, please—"

"Listen very carefully. Tomorrow, I will be with Finn."

"We can't split up like that."

"We can and we will. I will meet with my father alone and I will decide what happens to him."

"I didn't have to bring you, you know?" Cassian sighed. "You understand what's at stake right? If they get to your father first, we're all in danger. If they get to both of you, we're as good as dead. Every human being on this Earth will be at risk. I took that risk. I gambled with everyone's lives to give you a chance. Please just stick to the plan."

"I won't let you do it." She turned to him. "I won't let you kill him. Not when I've just gotten him back."

Cassian turned as well, letting her see how angry and afraid he was. "I don't want to." It felt like an admission of guilt far more horrible than admitting he'd considered it. "Not long ago I would have, without hesitation. The truth is, I don't give a damn about your father, but you do. I lost my family. I lost everything to this fight. I can't take that away from you. Not now, but this is bigger than us. I shouldn't have brought you, but I did." He looked at her and knew. "I can't do it," he whispered. "Kato was right. I'd have shot you first, but I can't." He fell back on the sand. _"Pinche idiota."_

Jyn chuckled. "I had to know. I had a feeling you were struggling with it, but I had to know."

He scrubbed his hands through his hair. "And?"

"I suppose I'm going to trust you, Cassian."

"Good." He sighed. "Because I'm trusting you with the fate of the world."

"No pressure," she said.

"No pressure."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
  


Sweat was pouring out of Poe, making his t-shirt stick to his skin. They'd gone from one of the coldest places in the country to one of the hottest. South Florida was humid, muggy and the streets were packed with people waiting for the parade to start.

"No sign so far," Cassian said into the comms.

Jyn and Cassian were in their positions midway down the parade route. Kato was at the north end. Finn was with Poe on the south side.

"Floats are starting," Finn said and Poe looked up to see that the first of the floats was moving into position.

"Alright everyone, eyes open," Poe said.

Galen Erso hadn't been overly specific about where he'd meet Jyn, only that he would find her. The whole thing made Poe uncomfortable. They didn't have nearly enough people for this operation. Normally Leia would assign a whole team to this at strategic points along the route, but they had to work with the cards they were dealt. At least there were five of them total.

A loud pop sounded close to Poe's ear, sending his heart racing. He looked up just in time to see the air fill with glittery green streamers and glistening shamrocks.

Finn cocked an eyebrow. "You seem tense."

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Finn threw an arm over his shoulder. "Relax. I got your back."

Poe responded in kind, putting his arm around Finn's waist. "That's reassuring."

They shared equally flirtatious smiles and set themselves to the task of scanning the crowd.

* * *

Jyn growled, popping up on her tiptoes and nearly sliding out of her cheap plastic sandals. She never knew the soles of her feet could sweat so much. "I can't see anything."

"Me either." Cassian chuckled.

"How's Papa supposed to find me if he can't even see me?" She tugged at the front of her tank top, fanning herself with it.

"I have an idea." Cassian crouched down, waving her over. "Climb up."

"On your shoulders?" She cocked an eyebrow.

He smiled. "Why not?"

"Alright," she shrugged. "But no jokes about being heavy or I'll kick your scrawny arse."

"You have my word."

It was an odd bit of logistics getting into a position where Cassian's head was between Jyn's legs in exactly the right way. He took her wrists and in a single, fluid push lifted her into the air without either of them toppling over. She'd been joking about his scrawniness, but hadn't quite realized how strong he was until she rose up above the crowd. He released her wrists, taking hold of her thighs instead.

"You good?" he asked.

She mussed his hair, smiling down at him. "I'm good."

"Tell me what you see."

* * *

Kato scanned the crowd, ignoring the strange looks people gave him in his 'Kiss me I'm Irish' shirt. He'd been ignoring their strange looks his whole life. There was no sign of their target with twelve minutes left to his next check-in.

_Parades are stupid,_ he thought. _Yes. Definitely stupid._

* * *

The parade was half over and there was still no sign of Erso. A tiny part of Finn hoped that the whole thing would be a bust. It might be better that way for everyone. Then he remembered what Galen knew and the thought of that man remaining at large with the First Order on his tail made him redouble his search.

Poe tapped his waist. "Across the street, moving through the crowd, black baseball cap, you see him?"

Finn scanned the crowd through the gap between floats. There was a man moving through, but Finn couldn't get a good look at his face.

"Did you get an ID?" Cassian asked in his ear.

"No," Poe replied. "He's the right build and he's moving through the crowd pretty quick, but I couldn't confirm with optics. He's headed your way now."

"We'll keep you posted," Jyn said.

* * *

"Anything?" Cassian asked.

"Not yet, calm down." Jyn replied. "Wait, which side of the street was he on?"

"Yours," Poe replied.

"Cause I've got a man, right build, black cap on the opposite side of the street. Head down, not engaging."

Cassian caught a quick glimpse of him before a float obscured his vision. "Kato, can you pull feeds. See if we can get an ID?"

"Affirmative."

Cassian looked up at the woman above him. "Did you get a good look at his face?"

She shook her head.

"Do you think it's him?"

"Don't know. I haven't seen Papa in years."

He patted her thigh. "Kato will find him."

* * *

Kato pulled away from the crowd, the application loading up on his phone as he moved. There weren't many street cameras in the area so he'd cobbled together a rudimentary network that included surveillance from local businesses and offices along the parade route. He was also looped into social media feeds from the event, audio, video, and photo in hopes of a match. So far his search parameters had returned no results.

He quickly scrolled through footage from both Poe and Cassian's locations and matched the visual descriptions with images from the crowd. He found the stranger in the black cap and updated the matching. Several images came through, none with his face. This man, whoever he was, was very good at remaining hidden.

"I cannot get a facial rec hit. Tracking through feeds now. He's two blocks away from my location and closing."

"Should we move?" Jyn asked.

"Not yet," Cassian replied.

"I think you should," Poe said. "Kato, if you make contact try and hold him until Jyn gets there."

"Confirmed," Kato replied.

Then the strangest thing happened. The man in the black hat disappeared.

* * *

"What do you mean disappeared?" Poe asked.

"The parameters I used to identify him in the crowd are no longer returning results," Kato replied. "His last confirmed hit was one block south of my location, in front of the restaurant _Il Bambino._"

"Go. See if you can find him," Cassian said. "We're on our way to you."

"Something feels off about this," Poe said.

Finn nodded. "Should we get closer? In case they need backup?"

Poe considered it for a moment. They were down to the last few floats and this was their only real lead. If they moved to the midpoint, where Jyn and Cassian were, they'd be close in a pinch, but still street side looking. He nodded.

Finn took his hand. "Come on then."

* * *

Jyn considered the problem. The hard part was getting across the street. Everything was cordoned off and without going all the way to the end of the route and circling back, there was no other option but to push through the parade. A few blocks away they found a spot where the crowd thinned and were able to push their way to the street. Simple, plastic barricades separated them from the spectacle.

As they drew closer, Jyn identified the sounds of fiddlers. She looked down the road to find a group of musicians and dancers skipping their way toward them.

She spun on Cassian. "Ever done a jig before?"

"No?" He snorted.

"Follow my lead then."

When the fiddlers arrived, she hopped the barricade and began dancing, Cassian a step behind her. One dancer frowned at her, but when Jyn followed the steps perfectly, the woman clapped and welcomed her in.

* * *

The restaurant was closed, shuttered up with a sign that read they would be opening for dinner service after the parade. Kato scoured the crowd, finding nothing. He searched the area for any possible points of egress. Still nothing. He looked up in the unlikely event that there was a way to climb out. Nothing.

He retraced his steps from the last photo hit, taking in every detail of his surroundings, allowing his optics to do their job. They would remove the element of human error. He swiveled his head back and forth until he reached the end of the block. He peeked around the corner, away from the parade route, then swiveled back again.

His lenses got a hit. He pivoted back to the empty street behind him, away from the crowds. His lenses zoomed in on a bundle half way down the block. As he approached he realized what he was seeing. Stooping over the heap he grabbed the black baseball cap and dark grey windbreaker the man in the photographs had been wearing.

"I've found something, but you're not going to like it."

* * *

Poe looked as unsettled as Finn felt in that moment.

"What do you think?" Finn asked. "Set up?"

"Maybe." Poe scanned the pavement at his feet. "Cass?"

Finn shook his head. "They won't hear anything over the noise. We almost didn't hear them."

Poe sighed, scrubbing his fingers through his dark, curly hair. "Let's keep moving. We'll catch up to them. Whatever this is, we'll deal with it."

Finn nodded, following Poe through the crowd. When Poe reached for his hand again, threading their fingers together, Finn's heart may have stuttered, just a little.

* * *

Cassian had just gotten the hang of the steps when he spotted the restaurant, pulling Jyn closer to it. Her eyes found the sign and she nodded, letting him lead her. They hopped the bannisters back into the crowd and found the restaurant shuttered up.

"Kato, we're here. Where the hell are you?" Cassian said.

"North end of the block," Kato replied.

Jyn took off down the street, shoving her way through the congested sidewalks. She reached the end of the block, Cassian only steps behind her. He saw Kato on the opposite side of the road, standing in front of an office building, head stooped over his phone.

"Kato," Cassian said and his partner looked up.

* * *

In Kato's estimation, technology was a wonderful thing. It meant they need not shout at each other from across the street, not that they'd be heard over the loud music coming from the parade. They could hear each other very clearly through the comms.

"I believe I've found something of interest," Kato said, dipping his head back over his phone.

Another convenience of technology was that it allowed for the quick and efficient coalition of data beyond the fallibility of human memory. For example, one's location on a particular street corner might not spark a memory, but when an address was properly cross referenced it might return results for a business that would otherwise go unremembered by the person standing on said street.

"What have you—" Cassian began. "Kato!"

Kato looked up again at the sudden urgency in Cassian's cry. He saw Cassian's eyes grow wide, attention focused on the building at Kato's back. Kato turned quickly, but his mind had already come to the inexorable conclusion that it was too late.

* * *

Cassian didn't wait for Kato's body to hit the ground before shoving Jyn back into the crowd. "Across the street. Go! Go!"

Jyn spun, shoving her way to the barricades and hopping across. They darted through a group of people on the street, out in front of an oncoming float. Cassian ignored the three red dots in his optics. He would wait and see who followed. On the other side of the parade they kept running. There was a boat waiting for them out on the water. A smaller craft was nearby at a local dock. They had to get to it first.

"Poe?" Cassian called. "Poe, do you read?"

There was no response. They must be jamming comms, which meant the First Order knew they were coming, which meant the whole thing was a setup.

"We need a car!" Jyn called.

Cassian scanned the street. The three red dots still appearing on his HUD told him there were still hostiles on their tail. That's when he saw the floats. At the end of the route the floats were diverted to a lot just north of the cordoned streets. "Over there!" He prayed Jyn followed as he jumped into the lot and an idling white van.

There was a cry behind him. Angry voices rising. Banging on the rear of the vehicle. Jyn dove into the passenger seat and Cassian floored it into traffic. The tiny red dots in his eye, rapidly disappearing behind him.

* * *

"Go west!" Poe spat.

From his optics Poe could see that Kato was dead, then comms went dead. Something had just gone very, very wrong. He and Finn headed away from the crowds and into local traffic. When they were a block away they headed north toward Kato's last location to approach from the opposite side of the block. Finn stopped short, waiting for Poe.

"What now?"

Poe pulled out his phone. "I'm gonna call for back-up." He realized the moment his phone was out that Kato had sent a message to the team. The 'something of interest' he'd discovered was the owner of the building. A shell corporation with accounts at RDR. It was suspected of being a First Order holding.

He forwarded everything Kato sent with a GPS location to Artie. The old bastard knew what the plan was. Hopefully he could send in reinforcements.

"Poe."

"Yeah?" He didn't look up from his phone as he responded. There was one more message to send. He couldn't give Kay any details, but he could get a message back to Leia that things had gone pear shaped. She'd light a fire under Artie's ass for sure.

"Blood on the street," Finn said.

Poe looked up at that, tucking his phone back in his pocket. "Where?"

"North side of the block. Kuat-Entralla Engineering." Finn stepped away from the corner to give Poe a chance to look.

Poe peeked his head out and saw the building Kato had died to warn them about. There were several dark spots on the pavement in front of the door. Not enough to cause alarm, but a trained eye would know what they were looking at. He pulled back.

"Here's what we do. You stay here. I'm going in—"

"No," Finn said calmly but firmly. "We stick together. If anything happens, I've got your back."

"I thought you didn't want to get involved." Poe smiled.

"Blow me," Finn replied.

Poe shrugged. "Maybe later. Alright, let's do this."

Casually, they crossed the block, just two parade goers heading toward the end of the parade for a last look. When they reached the entrance to Kuat-Entralla, Poe stooped down next to the blood pretending to tie his shoe. "Try the door," he muttered.

Finn leaned against the door and slid back without resistance. Poe watched him peek inside and turn back with a frown. Finn eyed him wearily. Poe nodded. The moment they entered the dim, tiled reception area, Poe understood what was making Finn uneasy. Kato's body lay by the door, tucked at the foot of a sleek, metal-footed sofa, blood pooling around his upper body.

"Two elevators, one rear hall," Finn said.

Poe pulled his firearm from the holster hidden at the small of his back. "Start with the ground floor, work our way up."

Finn retrieved his own pistol and nodded. "I'll follow your lead."

* * *

Cassian had gone ahead to scope out the situation on the dock. They'd dumped the car a block out and Jyn waited, stooped behind a trash bin, trying not to think too hard about what was happening. If she spent too much time on it she'd fall apart. The whole thing was a setup, which meant her father was either captured or dead already.

Cassian appeared again before she could spend too much time brooding. "There are First Order soldiers patrolling the docks. Stay low and follow my lead."

They made their way toward a hedge along the roadside, crouching behind it as they approached the wharf. Clusters of people milled around the area. Without the aid of the special lenses Cassian wore, Jyn had no idea which of them were friend and which were foe. Cassian waved her up and he threw an arm around her shoulder, steering her toward their vessel. She kept her head down, eyes averted while taking quick glances up and around her.

"Three on your right, and two on my left," he whispered. "Any second they're going to come toward us."

"Now?" Jyn whispered, chancing a glance at the reflection in the water. She could vaguely make out the shapes coming closer.

"Not yet." Cassian's grip on her shoulder tightened.

Two figures stepped out in front of them. Cassian pulled his weapon and opened fire. Jyn reached for the first thing she saw, a two foot metal pipe on the floor next to her. She swung up, striking her attackers arms and diverting the gun away. On the backswing she hit the back of his knee and he lurched forward right into the final blow across his face.

He crumpled onto his back and she ducked for his gun. She reached it but with no time to aim. The next one came at her and she swung the pipe backhand across his face, then crushed his kneecap and down across the back of his head as he fell. She fired two quick shots into the third and he went down. The one at her feet groaned, starting to rise. She took a final swing across his face and he fell.

She turned to find Cassian gaping at her, wide eyed.

"What?"

He smiled, shaking his head.

"Boat's right over here."

A few feet down the dock he jumped into the boat and began unmooring it. Jyn was just about to jump in herself when she heard the shot. It took only seconds for her brain to process the searing pain in her shoulder.

"Jyn!"

She was falling. A second later they were moving, the wind and ocean spray whipping around her. She looked up at a bright blue sky from the flat of her back. Nothing would come into focus around the pain.

"Stay with me, Jyn." Cassian cried. "We're almost out."

* * *

"Clear," Poe whispered. The last of the rooms was like all the others. Dark, filled with random office equipment and completely empty.

"Clear," Finn whispered back.

"Back to the lobby, we'll head up to the next floor."

Through the dim, Poe saw Finn nod and start back the way they'd come. As they picked their way back Poe smiled to himself. They worked well together. Finn's training hadn't faded at all in his years as a civilian and they'd quickly fallen into a rhythm. Finn would make a great recruit. He'd fly through it quickly and end up an Agent in no time. The man just needed a little convincing. Maybe a little incentivization. Finn would hardly be the first former Imperial they'd taken in.

When they reached the lobby again, Finn paused in the hall. "Elevator or stairs?"

Poe examined the stairwell on their right. It was the safer choice. He reached for the door and Finn followed without hesitation. Halfway up the landing Finn tapped his lower back. When Poe turned Finn tapped his ear, confirming what Poe already suspected. Someone was coming. Poe hopped up the steps, trying like hell to get to the next landing and out of a compromising position.

With a bang the doors flew open above and below them. Bodies clad head to toe in black tactical gear poured into the stairwell. In seconds they were surrounded. It took a few moments for Poe to realize he recognized their armor. It was the field uniform of the elite Stormtrooper, only instead of white it was completely black and where he'd expected to see the circular Imperial logo, there was a hexagonal patch instead. He studied it as best he could, trying to memorize it so he could recreate it later.

"Drop your weapons," the trooper closest to Finn demanded.

They both complied and were immediately, and rather roughly, lead up to the second floor and toward the elevators. Finn looked a bit green as they rode up to the top floor. Twenty if the indicator on the panel was to be believed. Poe prayed there wasn't some unknown helipad on the roof. If they got airborne Artie was gonna have a hell of a time finding them with all the signal jamming going on. He glanced over at Finn, who wouldn't meet his eye. He was looking increasingly more and more uncomfortable and an uneasy feeling began to settle in the pit of Poe's stomach.

"Did you fuck me?" Poe whispered.

"Shut up," one of the Stormtroopers spat.

Finn shook his head.

"You too traitor," another said, hitting Finn in the back of the head with the butt of his gun.

"Hey!" Poe shouted, but was immediately reined in from both sides and found himself staring down the barrel of two pistols. One for each eyeball. He stilled.

They held their tense standoff until the elevator doors opened and Finn was shoved through first. Poe's personal firing squad backed out one at a time, pistols still trained on his head. He felt another in the small of his back as they were led down what looked to be a hallway of executive offices. At the end of the hall was a wide open conference room with the high end furniture shoved against the walls. They stopped in the middle of it.

Finn was on Poe's right. The giant conference table overturned against the wall on his left. He clocked at least a dozen Stormtroopers in sight. Possibly more in the offices they'd passed. Poe glanced around, trying to gather as much detail as he could without drawing attention to himself.

"I can see why you like him," a whiny, nasal voice said from behind them. "He's very good. Poe Dameron. Eight years in service. Made Operative in nineteen months, Agent in twenty nine."

"Twenty seven," Poe corrected. "If you're going to be creepy at least be accurate."

The whiny voice chuckled and a pasty redhead stepped around the guard on his left.

"Holy shit, you're a Bond villain," Poe snipped.

He heard Finn snicker and the ginger's shit eating grin faltered for an instant. It wasn't far from the truth. He had a greasy air to him. Haughty, slimy, with slicked down hair and red rimmed eyes that looked like he'd been crying all afternoon. Worst of all, he was wearing a long, black, leather trench coat in Florida. Who the hell did that?

The man chuckled. "I'm glad you find this funny, traitor. I don't think you'll be laughing shortly."

The voice was the worst part. It was like nails on a chalkboard. It made Poe want to punch him in the face.

"We're not dead," Finn spat. "Which means you want something, Armitage."

"You know this guy?" Poe asked.

"Armitage Hux," Finn replied. "Yeah. I know him. Unfortunately."

Hux's greasy smile slid into a pouty frown.

"Oh," Finn murmured. "You didn't think…" He sighed. "Poor deluded, Armitage."

Hux nodded sharply at the man on Finn's left and the trooper punched him in the face. Finn barely moved under the blow, sniffed once and popped his head right back up, a trickle of blood running down his chin from his split lip.

"What do you want?" Finn asked again.

"To send a message." Hux spun around toward the large windows overlooking the beach. "Your friend is going to be my messenger."

Poe didn't like the sound of that. Dead men could make very powerful messages, but even if this Hux guy was talking about letting him walk, he'd only named Poe for the job, which left too many questions about what might befall Finn. Whatever happened, he was not leaving Finn behind.

"We're all ears," Finn said.

"We?" Hux chuckled and lapsed back into silence, staring out the open window.

"Is this a thing he does?" Poe asked, turning his head to Finn. "Stand around looking evil?"

Finn rolled his eyes. "He likes to stomp around too. Just like that, hands behind his back. You had him pegged. Bond villain."

"You're rather chatty," Hux whined. It was the only description for the sound of his voice. "Cut Dameron's tongue out."

Poe struggled. They were not taking appendages without a fight. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Finn fighting too, but there were too many of them.

"Oh wait!" Hux laughed. "I'm sorry. I forgot. I need him to send a message. It'll be easier if he can speak." He sighed. "Never mind. As you were." All at once Hux's pale eyes went cold. "But keep going and I may reconsider."

_Okay,_ Poe thought. _That was scary._ Not shit himself scary, but definitely few-screws-loose, best-not-to-antagonize scary.

Hux turned back to the window. "There we are. I almost missed them." He waved over his shoulders and the troopers jostled them closer to the window.

Hux stepped away before he was within reach, which was smart because Poe had already started working up how to use the proximity to his advantage. He'd have to keep his eyes open for another opportunity.

"Do you see that tiny speck on the water heading out to your ship? Those are your friends," Hux sniveled. "What Erso and Andor don't realize is we've already wrested control of that vessel from your crew. They're sailing right into our hands, which is all we wanted. We don't need Andor, though his information will prove useful. We really don't need the girl. You can come and get her later though she might have drifted quite a ways first. Do either of you know how far out the sea floor drop is? I'm not quite sure myself."

Poe starting putting the pieces together. They'd been under the assumption that the First Order needed Jyn as leverage over her father. Either Hux was lying to throw him off or Galen Erso was already dead. It begged the question what Hux wanted in this equation.

"How long did he last? Erso?" Finn asked.

"Longer than I expected, if I'm honest." The contemplative tone of Hux's voice did not match what Poe suspected they were discussing. "I did spare a few weeks just to break him but he had a rather high threshold for pain. In the end his mind was far stronger than his body. He never broke, or so I thought for years. Turns out he'd been singing the whole time. His last three weeks, all he'd say, over and over again. Stardust. His little girl. How sweet. It was also the kill switch command, but we already knew that, which is why we didn't use it." He sighed. "Stardust indeed."

Poe watched as the boat reached the larger vessel beyond. He could barely make their tiny bodies out as they climbed up the ladder on the hull. He prayed Cassian could get them out.

"Your compatriot is lucky. I've gotten much better since Galen Erso. Andor won't make it a month, though I may stretch things out for several before I bother to ask any questions."

A slew of pithy remarks crossed Poe's mind, but this was not the time or place for them. He needed a plan and quickly. Finn began chuckling, Poe hoped because he had a plan. If not, this was a bad time for a giggle.

"Still laughing I see," Hux sneered.

"She doesn't have it."

"You're bluffing."

"You're after her necklace right? The one with the override for the Death Star." Finn threw his head back and laughed. "I mean, come on. Erso first postulated 5D optical data storage was possible when we were all in diapers. You think I didn't know what it was the first time I saw it? I had a replica made. It's just quartz."

"Search him," Hux spat.

Finn continued to laugh, shaking his head as they whirled him around. "I don't have it here. Too many questions. I hid it a while back. You'll have to retrace my steps. Or I can trade you for it."

Some days Poe hated being a spy. He had no problem doing the guess work on Greasy McSnakeOil, but now he had to figure out what Finn's angle was. Either he was lying to Hux to buy time, or he'd been lying all along about Jyn.

"You have nothing I cannot take for myself," Hux said with a sigh.

"You know I won't have made it easy, Armitage. You've been looking for this thing for years. I've heard the rumors. I didn't realize until just now what you wanted, but I know how long you've wanted it."

Another Stormtrooper rushed into the room, whispering in Hux's ear. He frowned. Poe's joy at the sour look was short lived. Out of the corner of his eye he caught the giant fireball on the waterline. Several seconds later the sound reached them. A sickening rush that rattled the windows and Poe's resolve.

_BOOM._

A stone dropped into the pit of Poe's stomach. Kato. Cassian. Jyn. They were dead and he was beginning to realize that he was going to die too.

_Sorry, Artie,_ he thought. _I don't think I'll be keeping my promise._


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
  


The glass was still shaking from the explosion. A column of black smoke rose from the waterline beyond and Poe's heart sank with the ship. He wished he could see Kay one last time. Wished he could hug Bee just once more. He wished a lot things he hadn't ever thought he'd think about in the moments before death.

"Your reinforcements have arrived ahead of schedule. That's unfortunate, I was hoping we had more time, though I'm glad to see your Princess' bloodlust hasn't abated." Hux smiled, turning to Finn. "I wish I could believe you, but either you're lying about swapping the pendants or you're lying about giving it to me. Either way your offer is useless. I'd kill you, but I'm not as dishonorable as you imagine. I still owe you my life. Which means I'm forced to spare yours, but only this once."

Hux turned and strode out of the room. No one moved to follow him. He returned with a black object held against his chest. It looked like a helmet of some kind. He was staring into it reverently. When Hux turned it around to show them, Poe's blood froze in his veins. Four deep gashes across the top dipped into the mouthpiece, intersecting with half a dozen horizontal lines to form a grid pattern. It was a fucking Ren mask. One he'd seen before, many years ago.

Hux nodded at the men on either side of Finn and they released him, though they drew their weapons and stepped far enough back that they could fire before Finn would reach them. Hux held the mask out to Finn who wouldn't look at it.

"A gift," Hux breathed. "In case you've forgotten where you came from."

Finn stared over Hux's shoulder, not looking at anyone or anything in the room. Hux thrust the object into Finn's chest, but Finn remained stock still, jaw clenching and unclenching.

"Very well," Hux strode to Poe and thrust the object at him instead. "Hang on to that."

The men beside Poe released him and he took hold of the mask automatically. It was as terrifying in person as it had been on a screen. Scarier still because of the body count that came with it. Poe looked up from the mask to Finn, his attention still fixed on nothing. The horrible truth could no longer be ignored.

Finn was a Ren. That's how he'd survived so long. That's why he was so damn good. That's why he'd been so freaked out on the ride up and tried so hard to keep his secrets. He was a fucking Ren.

Except all the Rens were supposed to be dead. Leia had assured him of that. Had assured the whole Alliance of that. Which meant she'd lied. He had no illusions that she'd been mistaken or misled. Leia was neither of those things, but cunning, that she was. If everyone believed the boogeymen were dead, they'd march bravely into battle. Some days, he really hated his job.

"There is one final matter to attend to before I depart." Hux sighed. "Do you ever think about it? Do you regret letting me live? You _should_ have killed me."

"I never wanted to kill for you and wasn't going to start _with you_," Finn growled.

Quicker than Poe's eye could follow, Hux pulled a pistol from his side and shot Finn in the thigh. Again, Finn didn't flinch. Poe barely registered the subtle shift as Finn transferred the weight to his good leg and gritted his teeth.

"How I've missed you." Hux smiled, looking at Finn as reverently as he had the mask. "You know how to contact us. Come back and we will welcome you. We need men like you in the coming war. However, the next time we meet as enemies I will kill you. Consider the debt paid. You let me live, but only if no one came after you. I offer you the same. You can live, if your friend isn't stupid enough to follow." He turned to Poe. "Strong though he is, he's bleeding out. He's got a few minutes before he passes out and precious few after that before things get very serious. Save him or follow us, your choice."

Hux strode out of the room and slowly the Stormtroopers began closing ranks and filing out behind their leader until the hall was completely empty. The second they were gone Finn dropped.

* * *

Ben woke in a haze. His thoughts were thick, slow, soupy. He remembered Yuriko. Kanji Klub. The garage. The car. Driving. Then nothing. His back was stiff as a board, his left arm wouldn't move and his eyes felt like they'd been sewn shut. He peeled them apart slowly. Dry and irritable, it stung when he opened them. He groaned and something squeezed his right hand.

"Ben?"

He knew that voice. Rey. He couldn't seem to focus on anything in the room. It was in a civilian hospital. Tokyo. When Rey finally came into focus he thought he must be dreaming. She was sitting at his bedside in the white dress he liked. In the haze of blurry vision and too bright light shining through the open window, she glowed like morning sunshine.

"What…" he tried, but his throat was raw.

"Don't try to speak. You were intubated. Ben…"

The world fell away again.

* * *

Everything ached.

From the tips of his toes to his hair follicles, everything fucking hurt, but it was a dull faraway sensation that could only mean hard narcotics were involved. Ben opened his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time. He had vague notions of waking several times before, but nothing seemed to stick.

The room was dark, and he could see the Tokyo skyline through the window, glittering like the Milky Way. Rey was still there, head on her arm, snoozing at his bedside, hand still curled protectively around his. His thoughts were coming clearer now because he knew she shouldn't be there. What could have possessed his mother to let her come? There were at least a dozen other scenarios that should have played out before sending the handler. He squeezed her hand, testing out his voice.

"Rey?"

She blinked awake, groggy and slow. "Hello again."

"Water."

It took her a moment to catch up to the request before she sprung out of her chair, bleary eyed. She came back a second later with a plastic cup and straw. Propping herself on the edge of the bed, leaning over him to help him drink. He was starting to feel solid again. With it the aches and pains sharpened. That helped him concentrate.

"What'd I do?" he asked.

Rey took his hand. "You red lined. Passed out behind the wheel."

He groaned.

"Locals picked you up. You were pretty banged up and your vitals…" she trailed off. "You've been in a medical coma for the last three days. The Japanese government has been tying Leia up in red tape. They wouldn't release you until you could be woken. The hope is they discharge you to our care in the morning."

"Why are you here?"

"They'd only let next of kin in the room. Your alias doesn't cover that, so we improvised."

Ben knew what that meant, but it didn't explain why _she_ was the one sitting in the room. "Why you?"

"There weren't many options. All our other agents are on assignment." She glanced down at his hand in her lap, fighting back a smile. "Couple of alternatives could have been mobilized, but I didn't think you'd want to wake up to Karé Kun."

"Good instinct," he chuckled and immediately regretted it. "Next of kin, huh?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yes."

He already knew the answer, but he was feeling himself enough to push her buttons. "My younger sister?"

She cocked an eyebrow.

"My cousin?"

Still no response.

He frowned. "My daughter?"

"Idiot."

"How does it feel to be Mrs. Solo?"

"I'm Mrs. Weisman," she corrected. "Don't get your hopes up."

"It's not my hopes that are up."

She snorted. "You are in no position to be getting anything up."

"That hurt," he whined. "Can't you see I'm convalescing?"

"You'll survive," she said softly, though he got the sense that she was telling herself as much as him.

"They should have sent you in as my nurse."

"Oh, you'd get off on that, wouldn't you?" She shook her head, smiling.

Ben's brain did what it always did. It catalogued the details. She was smiling too much, averting her gaze often, playing with a stray bit of stitching in the sheets while trying like hell to keep still. She was anxious.

"Ho-ly shit," he breathed.

She snapped to attention, leaning in, scanning the machines at his bedside. "What? What is it? What's wrong?"

"You're worried about me?"

She snorted, the tension receding. She resumed her assault on the threadbare sheets. "Always the tone of surprise. You're not half as horrible as you pretend to be."

"You know, if I died, my mother would be so guilt ridden she'd definitely give you that field commission." He smiled. "You wouldn't even have to test for it."

"Not like that." She shook her head. "I—" Her jaw clenched. "I don't want to get that call, Ben. Not three months from now, not three years from now. I don't want to get the call that you didn't make it home."

He squeezed her hand. "I will always make it home."

"You can't promise that," she said, blinking up at the ceiling.

"I just did." If she was going to ignore the tears, then he could too.

"Liar," she breathed.

"I am, in fact, professionally." He watched her bat her dark eyelashes at the ceiling tiles in an effort to keep the tears at bay. The charcoal liner was already badly smudged and he could see evidence of past attempts to wipe it away. His head began to shake without his consent. "So, so, so, so, so, so fucked when you leave," he whispered.

A sharp rush left her body, a strained attempt at a laugh. She sniffed. "Get some sleep. You make it home in the morning."

"I've been sleeping for three days."

"Yes, well, you've got a lot of catching up to do."

He nodded, but he knew he wouldn't sleep. Even as exhausted as he was, his mind was racing. Rey slid back into her seat at his bedside, still gripping his hand. He kept glancing over at her as she toyed with her phone, probably checking in now that he'd woken up. She glanced up at him several times, pursed her lips and kept fiddling with her phone.

After ten minutes she put it down. "I can have the nurse administer more sedatives."

"No. No more sedatives."

She took a deep breath and held it, bracing herself, brow furrowing uncertainly. With a huff, she stood, moving around the far side of the bed and grabbing his sheet.

"What are you doing?"

"Lie still." She pulled the sheet toward the edge of the bed, sliding his body just off center, then walked back around and climbed into the narrow hospital bed, rolling into him the way she had just a few days before.

"My new miracle drug," he said.

"Shut up."

He lifted his good arm, curling it around her back.

"Careful with that hand," she warned.

Only because she'd said something, he let it inch down her back toward her ass.

She looked up at him, murder in her eyes. "I will hurt you far worse than any car accident."

He smirked, placing his hand safely at her waist. She settled against him, though he could feel the stiffness in her. Her hair smelled like shampoo and she was warm and close and worried about him. Rey was actually worried about him.

"Tell me a bedtime story."

"God you're insufferable."

* * *

Finn could hear Poe pacing before he opened his eyes. He'd learned years ago to sound out the room before revealing that he was awake. It was a survival mechanism. One of many he'd developed over a lifetime of violence. Poe's footsteps were quick, sharp. A heavy stomp across the room, a quick slide on the pivot. More stomping.

Opening his eyes slowly, Finn ignored the dull pain radiating out of his leg, he needed to get a sense of Poe's mood. Poe was definitely angry. Brow furrowed deeply. Eyes wildly scanning the tile ahead of him. Hands thrust into his leather jacket. Head dipped down. Shoulders hunched. Mouth in a flat line.

It was possible that some random other thing had gone wrong causing this shift in Poe, but Finn knew better. He knew exactly why Poe was so agitated and it was sitting at the end of his bed like a black stain against the white sheets.

As Poe pivoted he noticed Finn was awake. Those angry eyes falling on the man in the bed and immediately looking away with a scowl. The pacing slowed, Poe's back tensing, preparing to strike.

Finn steadied himself, waiting for the blow. Poe reached the other end of the room and spun again, stopping in the middle of the bed, not looking at Finn when he spoke.

"You were a Ren." There was no question in his tone, only accusation.

Finn didn't bother to respond. It wasn't necessary. They both knew the answer already.

"You lied to me."

"I never lied," Finn said softly, trying to diffuse the situation.

Poe's anger flared and he whipped around, finally meeting Finn's eye. "You sure as hell left an important piece out."

"I gave you my blood." Finn winced as he sat. "_She_ chose not to tell you. That's not on me."

"Don't start with that shit. It's not in our databanks. I looked." Poe spat.

"Bullshit!" Finn replied. "She knows. I know for a damn fact she knows. She omitted it."

"You could have told me at any point! You kept this a secret as much as Leia did!" Poe was practically shouting at this point. "Why? If you have nothing to hide, why not say so up front?"

That made Finn angry. "Are you fucking kidding me? You would have shot first and asked questions later. You hunted us down like animals. You didn't ask what happened. You didn't ask what I wanted. You didn't ask any of us. Most of the Ren's defected. Did you know that?"

"Defected?" Poe choked. He palmed the mask, slamming it down on the mattress. "I've seen this one before. _Did you know that?_ I watched it cut through seventeen good men and not break step. Was that you? Was this your mask?"

There was no good way to answer that question. Had it been him? Had he been there? Was that blood on _his_ hands? In some ways, yes. But in so many ways, in all the ones that counted, it wasn't him. It was never truly him. Finn must have remained silent for too long because Poe slammed the mask again, sending a tiny spike of pain through Finn's leg.

"Answer the fucking question!" Poe shouted.

"Why?" Finn countered. "You've already made your decision about me. You want to hate me, fine, hate me. But I'm not going to help you. "You don't know a thing about me – where I'm from, what I've seen."

"I know everything I need to know." Poe hissed. "You were a monster. A heartless, soulless, murder machine. Goodbye whoever the fuck you are." He pivoted for the door, slamming it so hard behind him that Finn felt the pressure change in his chest.

That anger, that immediate assumption of the worst, Finn thought it would never hurt him again, but it did. After all those years and everything he'd done to make it right, the Empire could still rob him of it in one fell swoop. In one carefully calculated stroke Hux had destroyed all of it because that had been his plan all along. Sow discord. That's why he didn't kill them, he wanted to plant the seeds of doubt. Put his enemies off balance and it was working.

Poe was the messenger and he was on his way to deliver.

* * *

The room was dark save the lance of light coming from the bathroom behind Leia. She sat at Ben's bedside, watching him sleep.

The moment he and Rey touched down on Naboo, Ben was put back under. Forty eight hours in a bacta tank and he was right as rain, physically. It was everything else that was still up in the air. Dr. Kalonia hadn't officially revoked his field commission, though it was certainly well within her rights to do now. If she did, it would be devastating to Ben. The doctor had assured Leia that these measures were purely precautionary, but given what happened in Tokyo, absolutely necessary.

No one wanted to say it aloud, the ugly truth hanging on the edge of everyone's lips, Ben had almost died in that wreck. Worse, he would have died needlessly. He shouldn't have been in that car. He shouldn't have gone to the hotel with that woman. He should have left shortly after the data was copied. Most haunting for Leia, he shouldn't have been on that assignment in the first place.

Amilyn had counseled against it. Rey had railed against it. Dr. Kalonia had been very, very unhappy about it. Ben had assured her he was up to it and she'd needed that intel. She _wanted_ to trust him. She _needed_ to trust him if this was ever going to work. She _shouldn't_ have trusted him. Not then. That was entirely on her.

She and Ben had been putting his life on the line for years on the understanding that there was a greater purpose being served. The lines in this game had always been fuzzy, hard to draw and harder to pin down. They'd just crossed one of her personal lines. It left her anxious and uncertain, questioning every choice she'd made since they dragged Ben back from the edge, feral, fractured, and barely recognizable as human, let alone her son.

In the dimness, Leia could see her son's chest rising and falling slowly. She could still picture him as a baby, fast asleep in his crib. He'd slept fitfully his whole life, sleepwalking as a child, mumbling in his sleep. When puberty struck the sleepwalking stopped and she reveled in the reprieve of a teenager who slept until noon. Her reprieve was shorter lived than she would have liked.

Ben stirred, rolling in her direction, forehead pinched, jaw clenched. He hadn't yet woken from his bacta dip. Leia wanted to be there when he did because she couldn't be in Tokyo.

"Mom?"

She glanced down in time to see Ben's eyes open, the world slowly coming into focus. He tried to sit.

"Easy does it, kiddo," she whispered, touching his shoulder. "You want to sit up?"

He nodded.

"Alright," she reached for the panel on the bedside that would raise the top half of his bed. "Slowly, that's it." She helped adjust to a sitting position and she could see the disorientation hit. "Give it a second. The dizziness should pass. Breath normally." She watched him carefully for any signs of discomfort beyond the nausea. When he seemed solid she spoke again. "How do you feel?"

"No pain. Stiff. Tired. How long was I out?"

"You were in the tank for two days." Leia checked her tablet. "And asleep for eight hours and seventeen minutes after."

"Huh." Ben took a minute to process that information.

"You've had three complete REM cycles, over two hour's worth. About an hour of deep sleep and normal restful sleep with very little wake time. That's a good sign."

"Yeah," he muttered.

He still seemed confused, disoriented. It might be a side effect of the treatment or signs of a serious injury. Healing traumatic brain injuries in a bacta tank was a risky proposition and while Ben hadn't shown any signs of head trauma, that didn't mean it hadn't existed when he went in.

"You look confused, hon. Do you know where you are?"

Ben pursed his lips. "I'm tired not concussed. Or am I concussed? Did I hit my head?"

"We don't think so," Leia chuckled. "Now answer the question."

"Level six. Medical and detention." A chilly smile spread across his lips. "I'm back in my old cell. How thoughtful."

Sarcasm was a good sign. The first go-to in their family. It was a hereditary trait that went all the way back to Anakin Skywalker, who was apparently the king of snide.

"I take that to mean Harter's keeping me here a while."

Leia sighed. Leave it to Ben to figure out the seriousness of his situation within minutes of waking. "Yes, at least a week. She wants to do a full sleep study. Three hundred sixty degree monitoring. You'll be isolated on level six."

"Fuck," Ben hissed, drawing the word out. "Complete isolation?"

"No, you'll have access to the gym – down here, not upstairs – and I'll be visiting you, but no one else."

He closed his eyes, fingers absently reaching for the ring on his left index finger only to find the band missing.

"She still has it," Leia explained.

Ben sat in silence for a long time, his shoulders seeming to slump more with each passing second.

"Talk to me, Ben. Please. I hate to say it, but I have no idea what to do."

"That makes two of us." He turned his head to look at her, examining her curiously. "Why'd you send Rey?"

Leia hadn't expected that questions so quickly. It only confirmed for her that she'd made the right choice. "If I could have, I would have gone myself…" she groped for the right words, "When we realized the Japanese were going to give us a hard time, she didn't even wait for Ams and I to start discussing alternatives. She _demanded_ that we send her." Leia shrugged. "I didn't want you to wake up next to someone who didn't give a damn."

He was silent again for a long time. She was just about to prompt him again when he spoke.

"We need to tell her," he said quietly. "It doesn't have to be everything, but I think she's earned a bit of information."

"No." Leia shook her head slowly. "Your situation is still up the air. There's a decent chance that at the end of the week Harter will pull the plug. That means Johnson goes into field work. I'm not willing to make that move if it's not necessary."

"You don't trust her yet."

"I trust her more than you think. Things are getting bad out there. It's dangerous for anyone to know. I'm doing it to protect her as much as you. If it's critical to share, then maybe. At the moment it's not critical."

"So you have considered it?"

"I'd be a fool not to." Leia chuckled. "I played hardball on Tokyo at first, just to see where the line was. She told me to go fuck myself."

"Did she?" Ben smiled. "Before I left, Amilyn said she hadn't seen anyone stand up to you like that since Dad left."

A tiny fear had been brewing in Leia's mind these last few weeks. Seeing their interactions she could tell Ben was warming to the girl, but he kept holding back. "She's not your father, Ben."

He sneered. "I hate it when you people do that."

"Harter's your shrink. I'm your mother. If we didn't know what was going on in that thick head of yours we wouldn't be doing our jobs."

"You gonna be here a while longer?" he asked.

The vulnerability in his tone nearly broke her heart. It had been so long since she'd heard it. She reached for his hand, giving it a squeeze. "As long as you need me."

"Thanks, Mom."

She squeezed his hand again her throat tightening around the words, "Tell me one thing. Is this still what you want?"

He frowned. She'd never asked him that before. He must know she had her doubts, but she'd never once given them voice in his presence.

"I just…" She sucked in an unsteady breath, blinking back tears.

"Hey, don't do that." Ben squeezed her hand.

"Everything we did. Everything we fought for. It was to build a world where you didn't have to live this life." She swallowed hard. "I know you love it. I know you're good at it." The tears were welling in her eyes. She wasn't sure how long she could keep them back. "But, I never wanted this for you. I never wanted—"

"I do." He said firmly. "I still think this was the best choice."

Her lip trembled and she whispered, "I don't want it to kill you."

"Neither do I." He squeezed her hand.

The tears began to fall, the full weight of the danger he'd been in finally sinking in. "It still might."

"Yes, but it'll be my choice." He brushed the tears from her cheeks with gentle, steady hands. "Mine and no one else's."

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "I'm sorry. I—"

"Don't apologize."

"I love you, kiddo." She sniffed, hurriedly wiping the tears from her cheeks.

Ben chuckled, his sad smile tinged with a hint of mischief. "I know."

The last of the levies in Leia's heart broke and she sobbed.

* * *

There was a knock on the door. Finn didn't bother to look up at the sound, pulling his shirt over his head. "Come."

"How ya feeling?" Artie asked in his thick accent.

"Much better, thank you." Finn said with a nod. "I appreciate your help. Haven't had a bacta treatment in years."

"I can imagine." Artie chuckled.

"Did you ever recover Kato's body?"

Artie dropped his gaze to the long greyed tile. "No. But Poe confirmed he was dead. At least we have that."

"Then it's starting again."

Artie sighed deeply, nodding. After a pause he said, "Look, about Dameron."

"Don't worry about it," Finn replied, fighting to keep his expression neutral. "I'm used to it."

"Yeah, but you shouldn't have to be."

Finn shrugged into his jacket, eyes narrowing on Artie. "You seem to be alone in that assessment."

Artie shook his head, the blue and silver spikes atop his head jiggling slightly as he moved. "I'm not. I know what they did to you and contrary to what you might believe, we don't just throw people out into the cold. Dameron didn't know or he wouldn't have reacted the way he did. He's a good lad."

"But he _didn't _know and the damage is done now." Finn scanned the spartan room. His bag was packed, his affairs were as in order as they were going to get. It was time to go. "Thank you again for the medical. I owe you one. You know how to get a hold of me when you're ready to call that in."

"You don't have to go. I'm not going to charge you by the hour."

"That's very kind. You'll have to forgive me for not trusting you."

"Comes with the territory." Artie shrugged. "You sure you don't need to make a call?"

Finn threw his bag onto his shoulder, frowning. "Call?"

Artie nodded toward the mask on the corner of the bed. Finn hadn't been able to touch it, so it had not moved.

"I can call him for you, if you'd like. I know he'd come."

Finn smiled, the last of the pieces clicking into place. The underground bunker. The money. The connections to the Alliance. "Rory Robert Duncan Drummond."

"At your service." Artie winked. "As I said, you don't have to run out of here so fast. We take care of our own."

"I don't know if doing a few jobs for you makes me one of your own, but I appreciate the offer."

"Your choice, lad." Artie threw up his hands then pointed at the mask. "What do you want me to do with that?"

"Whatever you want. Put it in a display case with the others. Burn it. I don't give a shit. So long as I never have to look at it again."

Artie nodded. "Alright then. Can we at least give you a lift? Hera's out and about, but Jacen can take you wherever you need to go."

Finn considered it. He didn't have the slightest idea where he was, not really. Somewhere in Siberia was about the extent of it and knowing who Artie was now, who he really was, made a difference in his opinion. "Yeah, that would be great."

"Consider it done. I'll make the arrangements." Artie turned to leave, but hesitated in the doorway. "I haven't told the kids. If you'd like me to—"

"No," Finn interjected. "I don't want that knowledge spreading. I'd much rather put it behind me."

Half an hour later Finn stepped into the central nervous system of Artie's little kingdom. There was a loft on the second floor, a circular platform in the center of the room, and half a dozen alcoves lining the walls, each one tucked away with some collection of paramilitary armament.

Two voices floated to him from beyond the central platform. Jacen's he recognized, the girl's voice he'd only heard once or twice since his arrival.

"Hello?" he called.

Jacen appeared at the loft railing, smiling down at Finn. Seconds later, a young girl slid up to the railing, bumping it and rolling backward again. Her coppery hair was pulled up into a big ball atop her head.

"Ready to go?" Jacen asked, descending down the main floor, the girl hot on his heels.

The closer they got, the more and more certain Finn was that he recognized the girl but couldn't for the life of him figure out where he'd seen her before.

"Artie tells me you're headed to Amsterdam," Jacen said.

Finn nodded, still staring at the girl. She looked up at him in exchange, dark eyes curious. It was the eyes that gave her away. When she smiled he could see it. That keen way she surveyed him. That hint of mischief. He knew exactly where he'd seen her before.

_And now it all makes sense,_ he thought.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   
  


Rey traversed the halls of the Alliance facility, wending her way through the labyrinthine corridors on auto-pilot. Everything was in limbo.

The medical team had been working on an alternative to Ben's medication for a while but from what Dr. Kalonia had told her, their work didn't seem to be progressing fast enough. If they took him out of service it meant Rey was out of a job. To that end, and exactly as Ben predicted, Leia had offered her the opportunity to test in early if Ben was benched. She wanted to believe she'd earned it, but it was definitely guilt on Leia's part.

On the ride down to level six she pulled the chain from her blouse, fiddling with the black ring. In Tokyo, his hands were too swollen to give it back to him. Once on base he wouldn't be able to wear it in the tank. After he got out he went straight into isolation. There had been no opportunity to give it back so she'd kept it close, guarding it for him as she had on so many other occasions.

The elevator doors slid open and she found Leia and Amilyn standing in the hall, whispering to one another. This level was a combination of medical and detention. They had everything from cells, to full apartments built in the bowels of the facility to keep guests of every persuasion. The good, the bad, and the quarantined. She'd been through medical several times before, but never into the barracks and detention facilities beyond.

Both women looked up as Rey stepped out of the elevator.

"Rey," Amilyn said warmly. "Ben's in a therapy session with Harter at the moment. They should be done soon."

"Therapy?" Rey asked. "I thought he was fully healed?"

"Psychiatric," Leia explained. "Harter insisted on going back to weekly sessions while Ben's under observation."

"Back to?" Rey sighed. Not for the first time in the last week she'd uncovered a new layer to Ben's condition that they'd been keeping from her. From the recurrence of his vocalizations to the six years he'd been struggling with it, and now she was learning for the first time that he'd been receiving psychiatric treatment and they'd never bothered to mention it.

"I'm sorry, kiddo." Leia rubbed small circles into her temple. "Ams, if this all goes well, remind me to prepare a packet for her of everyone and everything she needs to know."

"I will," Amilyn replied.

"Any progress on why Ben's aliases were blown?" Leia asked, probably to move the conversation away from the ever growing elephant in the room.

Rey scrunched her nose. She _had_ found something though she'd really hoped she could have the conversation with Amilyn in private first. It was kind of awkward.

"Spit it out, kid," Leia insisted.

Rey lifted her tablet, pulling up the intelligence she'd found on Vancouver. For a second she considered not telling them. There was enough on their plates already without adding this to the equation. Of course, she had to tell them. The research was done. All they had to do was pull her records. Still, she couldn't bring herself to say it out loud so she held the tablet out with a sigh.

Together Leia and Amilyn scanned the write up. Amilyn took the device, swiping through the files. Leia looked up at Rey with a face that clearly said _'You've got to be fucking kidding.'_

"Sorry," Rey said.

"It's not your fault," Leia replied, obviously over it.

"Good afternoon, ladies."

All three heads turned to Dr. Kalonia. Her kind eyes and soothing voice had the preternatural ability of setting anyone at ease. It helped that she never wore the white coat. In plain, simple, business casual she could be just another employee. One of them. A peer. A friend.

"Shall we?" Dr. Kalonia stepped aside, waving toward the hall behind her.

As they made their way through the familiar parts of the lower level, Leia fell behind whispering with the doctor as Amilyn walked ahead with Rey.

"Have you thought about it?" Amilyn asked.

"Yes."

"And?"

Rey shrugged. "If he's cleared, we go back to work. If he's not, I move on. Not much to consider, really."

Amilyn nodded. "He'll be alright, you know."

"He's the one you need to convince of that, not me. When he starts believing it, then it might have a chance of being true."

Amilyn eyed her curiously.

She was a bit tired of being treated like a curiosity with them. "What?"

"That's twice now you've said something that Harter's been saying for years." Amilyn's smile broadened. "You know if we end up reassigning you, I get to choose where you're based, right?"

Rey hadn't known that.

"We _should_ put you at Mon Cala. They're down to one Agent there. Say the word and you stay here."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"On the left," Dr. Kalonia called.

Rey looked up then, realizing she'd been so distracted by the conversation she hadn't noticed them leaving the medical wing and entering the dormitories. The walls on either side of her were lined with giant glass windows and a single door next to each, interspersed at even intervals. The windows all around her were dark, save the one ahead on her left. Her pulse pounded in her throat as she approached the glass, peering into a spartan bedroom roughly a thousand square feet. There was a bed and some dressers along the far wall. A sitting area with television under the window. On the right, by the door, was another door and she could see the bathroom beyond.

Ben stood from his place stooped over the bottom drawer of a dresser, turning when the door opened.

"Ben!" Amilyn called, gliding across the room and throwing her arms around him. "How do you feel?"

He nodded, a tired smile on his lips. "Worse for wear, but hanging in there."

Leia and Dr. Kalonia passed into the room next. Leia also pulled her son into her arms and gave him a big bear hug. "Good to see you again, kiddo."

The doctor turned toward the glass, scanning it but never finding Rey directly. It must be one-way. She waved Rey in.

Unsteadily, Rey moved into the doorway. Her eyes met Ben's and the whole world seemed to fall away. She'd never seen him so open, so stripped down. There was a world of uncertainty in his eyes.

Then he smiled. "My beautiful wife. How I've missed you!"

"Oh for fuck's sake." Rey rolled her eyes, storming into the room and sitting on the arm of the sofa.

"What? No hug? No kiss for your husband?" He pushed through the sea of older women and hovered in front of Rey, smiling like an idiot. "Tell me you missed me."

"At the moment, I'm regretting ever agreeing to this job," she quipped, though she could feel her smile spreading.

"Well then I guess you're praying for suspension?"

She bobbed her head back and forth, making a great show of considering it. "Maybe just a little."

"My own wife." He sighed theatrically.

"You're not going to let that go are you?"

"Ne-ver," he breathed, drawing out each syllable.

"They certainly fight like a married couple," Leia mused.

Amilyn tutted. "Don't encourage him."

Rey peered around Ben. "It wouldn't matter if you did. He'd still be incorrigible."

"Nicely played," Ben mused.

Rey nodded, quite pleased with it herself.

"To business then?" Leia asked. "I think we're all ready to know what happens next."

"Yes." Dr. Kalonia motioned toward the sofa.

Leia and Amilyn sat. Ben took a seat atop the cherry wood coffee table, facing them. Dr. Kalonia stood at his side. Rey only had to turn slightly from her perch.

"Reviewing the data and after several very necessary discussions with Ben, we've come to an impasse," Dr. Kalonia explained.

Leia's frown was deep and terrifying. "Owing to what factors?"

"Ben's condition has stabilized, but it's not improved to a point where I feel comfortable returning him to field work in the midst of a war." Dr. Kalonia held a hand up, stopping Leia from arguing. "The situation in the field is very different now than when I first agreed to this experiment. Stress levels are higher and Ben is not getting the necessary rest periods in between. We're still working on an alternative to his medication, but his ever increasing reliance on it in the past makes me hesitant to replace one drug for another. It's not a silver bullet, Leia."

"What about the alternatives we discussed?" Rey asked. "The other sleep therapies?"

Ben cocked an eyebrow. "When did you discuss this?"

"Rey and I have been discussing it for weeks. She offered to review the list and see if there were any she could convince you to work into your normal routine." The doctor shrugged. "We hadn't looked at them in years. I thought it was worth a shot."

He shook his head. "Such a dutiful wife."

"I will put all of us all out of your misery," Rey needled.

"Children," Amilyn warned.

"To your point." Dr. Kalonia nodded at Rey. "Ben has agreed to a few of your recommendations. I'd like to begin implementing these and studying their effectiveness. It is possible – if Ben properly commits to the treatment plan – to see improvements in the next few weeks. I know the value field work has on Ben's mental state. Having a purpose is important to him. As such, I'm not ready to take that away from him yet. If I do the benchmark for reinstatement will be much higher and take far longer to reach."

Rey realized then this all hinged on Leia. They were asking her to keep him off the roster while they tried to get his health in order. If she tried to field him, Dr. Kalonia had a kill switch but it would mean Ben had to test back into his commission and the medical requirements would be much, much higher than where he was now.

Ben's face was a carefully crafted mask. He stared at his mother with blank eyes, waiting for her to make her choice.

Leia nodded. "Of course. Take all the time you need. I'll wait for you to give the all clear. Ams, extend his medical waylay indefinitely."

Amilyn nodded, hunching over her tablet.

"The house is ready," Leia continued. "Full surveillance, bedrooms, bathrooms, the whole nine." She waved her hand dismissively. "Move in teams are in your house now getting the last of it out."

"We're moving?" Rey asked.

"I'm moving," Ben replied. "The house was built for Ematt, bit of a retirement gift. The monitoring systems were upgraded for me."

"And what am I meant to do?" Rey turned to the two women on the sofa. "Ben is still active, which means I'm still his handler."

"You have a choice," Ben replied. "This could work, or it couldn't. We won't know until we try. There's no point in making you sit around for weeks or months if it doesn't."

"Then I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it." Rey glared at Ben, mustering all the defiance she could. He gave as good as he got. "For as long as your commission is active, I'm not _going anywhere_."

Amilyn cleared her throat. "Should I tell the move teams—"

"Yes," Rey replied, still starring Ben down.

"Alright then," Amilyn chimed.

* * *

The collection of flags hanging outside the old castle where Maz Kanata held court was as large as it had always been. Flags from all over the globe hung in various states of tattered and torn. As Han approached he picked out the flag for Naboo. The one for Mon Cala. One flag hung lower than the rest, Maz's version of half-mast. A memorial to the fallen. Alderaan.

Han touched two fingers to his temple and saluted it, throwing his weight into the old door and passing into one of his favorite hives of scum and villainy. He clocked the Rodians at the poker table playing cards with the Swiss, the Germans and… Han wasn't sure who the last guy was. He made a mental note to find out and kept walking.

He nodded at Max Rebo and Sy Snootles, the rest of Max's band were new. Rebo was a bit of an acquired taste and he changed his lineup like he changed his underwear. Sy was the only one who could put up with him, but Han had a sneaking suspicion it was because they were sleeping together. Not that he really wanted to confirm that intelligence. It was just a hunch.

Before he reached the bar a pair of wide, bespectacled eyes tracked him across the room. She was kind enough _not_ to shout his name this time. The last time she pulled that stunt half the room pulled guns on him, Maz included, and the other half got out of their way. At the time, the only person in the room not looking for a fight was Chewie. His hairy ass wasn't there to defend him on this occasion.

Maz eyed him as she filled a customer's drink order, taking her precious time with three other customers before sidling over to Han.

"Where's my boyfriend?" she asked.

"Haven't got a clue," he replied, which was true for the moment. They weren't meeting up again for another few days, letting the heat die down from the last job, which was way hotter than Artie had led him to believe.

"And why are you here?" Maz quipped.

"I'm here to pay my tab."

What Maz Kanata considered laughter sounded more like two donkey's dying than anything else. "Well that's a first."

"The only reason Artie gave me this job is because no one else would take it. If I don't pay him he's threatened to sell my GPS coordinates to every bounty hunter on the continent."

"And it would serve you right." Maz chuckled. "I hear you even blew a few aliases to do it."

He shrugged. "Names are a dime a dozen."

"I wasn't talking about _yours_," she cocked a wrinkled eyebrow at him.

_Great,_ Han thought. _She's back on good terms with Chewie again._ He tried not to think about what their conjugal visits might look like. He'd had a big dinner.

"Your own son, Han." She tutted at him.

"He's gotten out of worse."

"He almost died, you know."

"It was a few Black Sun cronies? I doubt that."

"No, Han," she said gravely. "Ten days ago a car spun out on the 502 in Tokyo. It hit a guard rail. A piece of metal nearly six centimeters in diameter went right through the windscreen and into the headrest. That boy was lucky his face wasn't there to meet it."

Han's heart dropped into his stomach. An urgency he rarely felt ran through his veins. "And?"

"He's home now. And you should go home too. You've been running away from this fight for too long. Han, _niagi ne go wada, _go home."

He shook his head. "Leia doesn't want to see me."

"How the hell would you know?" she spat. "You haven't spoken to her in almost four years."

"We speak… indirectly."

"Well start speaking directly."

"Clean break is better, it heals faster." He fished into his pocket for a cigarette, but Maz caught his hand.

"Outside."

"Really?" He put on his best wounded look.

"Outside," she repeated, unaffected.

He grumbled, tucking the unlit cigarette behind his ear. "Fine. Can I get a drink at least?"

"In a second, there was one other thing." Maz leaned across the counter conspiratorially. "The Japanese government gave your wife a hard time. It took three days to get Ben back and they fielded a new asset to do it."

He knew where this was going and he had a bad feeling about it.

"I'll let you keep twenty percent." She leaned across the bar, smiling.

She had his attention now. Twenty percent was no small amount. "What's the ask?"

She glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening then narrowed her eyes on him. "Who's the girl?"

* * *

With the top down, the wind, the hum of the engine, the salty sea air as they drew closer to the ocean, all of it felt new and fresh to Ben. It felt like an eternity since he'd seen the sun and he was desperately looking forward to going out on the water.

"Where are we going?" Rey asked as they turned off the main road – Mountain Pass, it was called – that lead up the mountains and headed west to Theed. The downward slope would take them through the ruins of the old capital and toward the beaches on the western shore.

"For a drive," Ben replied.

"I'm not dressed for the beach," she replied.

"I have a change packed for you. Don't worry."

"That's not comforting. I dread what you'd choose to put me in."

Ben pondered this for a moment. "Damn, I squandered an opportunity."

"Thank god," she replied. "Okay, seriously, what's going on?"

"We're going sailing."

"Oh no!" Rey choked. "No, sir. Do I look like Kay Connix to you?"

"No, and thank Christ for that," he leaned back in his seat, easing off the accelerator as they coasted downhill. "Just, trust me okay?"

"Fine," she grumbled. "But if this is a trick I will make you regret it."

"I know."

The drive was pleasant. Where Rey liked to soak, Ben preferred a good drive to help clear his head and organize his thoughts. The island was the perfect place for that. There was plenty of road and very little habitation. Entering the capital, Ben noticed the reverence with which Rey took in the old city.

"Have you never been out this way before?" he asked.

"I haven't," she replied, eyes fixed on the palace in the distance, its domed rooftops rising above the rest of the city.

"We'll come back, maybe in a few days. The palace is a lot of fun to explore. I'll reserve some climbing gear."

"Climbing gear?" she asked, unbuckling her seatbelt and turning to kneel in her seat as they passed Palace Road. These weren't the official names, of course, but their true names were mostly forgotten. Now they named their roads for what they were or where they went.

"Yeah, the place is falling apart. The only way into some of the upper levels is to climb."

They reached the edge of the city minutes later, the palace no more than tiny balloons against the blue sky. At the edge of town the limestone ended abruptly and fell off into the ocean. They turned onto Cliff Face, the road that would lead them down to the shoreline and the street of the same name.

Rey peered down the cliffs to the churning ocean below. "You better not be staring at my ass."

He hadn't been. The roads were tricky along the face and he needed to pay attention, but did give it glance now that she'd mentioned it.

"Well, you are presenting it so nicely."

She turned just in time to catch him looking and dropped into her seat. "Eyes on the road!"

"Stop distracting me," he countered.

He saw the hand coming, meant to swat at his arm and caught it easily.

"No hitting the driver. I could crash again."

She tried to pull away, but he held her wrist, threading his fingers through hers. She let him, turning her head aside to face the open sea.

Ben focused on the road. Devoted as much of his attention as he could to being present and engaged in the act of controlling the vehicle down the winding, narrow slopes. It would save him thinking too hard about what he said next.

"My therapist tells me that I use sarcasm as a mask."

Rey snorted, eyes still fixed on the horizon. "She said that, did she?"

"Shocking, I know. Completely changed my whole self-image."

"Somehow I doubt that."

"She also told me that I am excruciatingly bad at communicating my thoughts and feelings honestly."

"Wow. That must have been hard for you to hear." She glanced over at him with a knowing smile.

"Not really. That one I'm quite proud of."

She rolled her eyes, turning back to the sea.

"Thank you," he said.

"For?"

"Sticking around. Not really used to it. Still trying to figure out what you get out of all this. My instincts tell me not to trust you. That there's some ulterior motive here I just don't see yet. Either way, you've helped me out of many a shit situation and I've never properly thanked you for it."

She pulled her hand from his and Ben's first instinct was to clamp shut. Had he touched a nerve? Was everyone else completely out of their minds and he was the only one seeing this clearly? He glanced over at her, but she was no longer next to him. He had to look again to realize she'd dropped her seat all the way back and was now rifling through her purse in the back seat. Her ass, once again, flying in the air.

"Distracting!" he called.

"Learn better self-control," she responded.

The urge to smack her ass, just for the rise it would get out of her, was so powerful he had to put both hands on the wheel and white knuckle it the next quarter mile until her seat was back in the upright position.

"Where's the first spot you can pull over?" she asked.

Ben pulled the map up in his mind, the road leveled out along the first stretch of beach, but there was no good place to pull off until… "The cove."

"Then pull off at the cove."

He glanced over at her. She had a small blue shopping bag in her lap. It whipped wildly in the wind.

"What's in the bag?"

"I don't want to die on this trip, so pull off at the cove and I'll show you."

A few minutes later, the road took its final loopback signifying the end of Cliff Face and the beginning of Shoreline. A wall of stone flew by on their left and on their right, pristine, white sand, long untouched by tourism, stretched out for several meters toward crystal blue water. Within a mile the beach pulled away from the road giving way to an expanse of sea grass growing around rocky outcroppings. He turned off onto a shell road that was just wide enough to drive through, pulling to a stop in a roughly circular clearing just beyond.

Ben got out first, not waiting for Rey. Luke had tried to teach him not to believe in coincidences. Luke believed that when a man lived a certain way, he made things happen around him. More often than not, Ben considered this advice bullshit, but then a situation like the one he found himself in would arise, and he was thrust into the crossroads of his past and his future. If there was a fate it would pull a stunt like this.

When he reached the natural stone archway that served as the entrance, he turned back. Rey was a few feet behind him, gazing up at the arch in awe.

"Come on, I want to show you something," he said.

She clutched the little blue bag in one hand and pulled off her heels, tossing them into the car before trotting after him. At low tide they could walk under the arch and onto the tiny beach beyond. Ben took in a deep lungful of sea air and let it out slowly.

"My parents were married here," he said. "I actually hate coming to this place."

"You could have said so." Rey sighed. "We could have stopped somewhere else."

He shrugged. "It's fine. It's beautiful and you've probably never seen it before, so here you go, Kaadara Cove." He chuckled. "Watch out for condoms. It's said to be the most romantic spot on the island."

"Really?" She searched the sand, upper lip curling in disgust. "People are heathens."

"Yup. So, what's in the bag?"

Her attention turned to him, fighting the smile on her face. "Your therapist was right. You may never have thanked me in words, but every time you leave you bring something back." She reached into the bag and pulled out a multipack of cheap ramen noodles. "I call that gratitude. It's a piss poor substitute for good communication skills, but it's something."

Ben took the package. The label claimed it was 'Extra Spicy Curry Noodle Stir-Fry' with a friendly Asian caricature of a little boy on the side claiming it would 'melt his butt off'. He snorted at the last bit. A breeze kicked up, blowing sand and sea spray at them but he couldn't feel it. He tried like hell to wrap his brain around what was happening.

"I don't have an ulterior motive. Mine are all out in the open. You're the one with all the secrets."

_One fewer today,_ Ben thought. "Come on. I want to push off before sundown."

The next half hour passed in relative silence. Just past the cove, Onoam Beach stretched on for over twenty miles before petering out near the harbor. Veruna was the only deep inlet and had once been the sole supply line to the tiny island nation. Curious sailors still attempted to berth on Naboo, but it was now privately owned and the curious were always sent away unfulfilled.

They parked in the mostly vacant lot. A few of the facility's staff were out to sea and many more kept boats in the harbor. There wasn't much to do on the island but work and enjoy what nature had to offer. Some did so on land, exploring the abandoned cities, spelunking the Eleuabad caves that ran from the shore deep into the mountains, lounging at Lake Paonga to the south, going hunting in the Sacred Forest to the east, or white water rafting on the Solleu.

Ben had done them all. His earliest memories growing up were always of the water and those were the activities he liked best. Sailing was in his blood – and lying, apparently. He pulled his duffle out of the trunk while Rey snapped closed the convertible's canvas roof. The sun was dipping close to the horizon, tinting the sky in rosy hues. At a guess, they had less than an hour to clear the reef.

"Cutting it close," he muttered. "Morbid curiosity, do you know anything about sailing?"

Rey hip checked the door closed, shouldering her bag. "Not a damn thing."

"Lovely. Well, let's get to it."

They made their way down the pier, turning off at his dock, watching the sun dip lower on the horizon. At the end of the pier he hopped into his ship. It didn't look like much, but she was the fastest hunk of driftwood on the seas. He dumped his things on the deck and turned to help Rey aboard. She stood several feet off, arms crossed, shaking her head.

"I am _not_ getting on _that_," she spat.

"Yes, you are." He waved her forward.

"That thing looks like it's one barnacle away from capsizing."

"What?" Ben blinked at her. "That doesn't even make any sense. Please, would you just get on the fucking boat?"

"Ben, why are we here?"

He cocked an eyebrow. "That's a bit of an existential question isn't it?"

"Idiot." She rolled her eyes. "Why this? Why now? We've got loads of time. You're in an awful hurry for a man who's just been put on waylay indefinitely."

"There's something I have to tell you."

"Then tell me."

He glanced up at the light post over her right shoulder, then down the dock to the one on her left. She turned to follow his eyes, frowning. He could see the wheels in her head turning. The whole island was crawling with surveillance cameras. Audio as well as video. Every action, every conversation, ever internet search and dirty joke and meaningful look was captured for posterity.

"Oh," she said.

He leaned further out, hand outstretched to her. "Please."

She took his hand, letting him pull her aboard.

"Welcome aboard the _Millennium Falcon_."


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   


Artie had warned Leia that Poe was angry. That he was coming home on the warpath. She'd counseled Artie to keep his silence on the subject of Rens. Poe didn't need to know that they'd _both _lied to him. If he did something rash at least he'd still trust Artie, which was funny because Artie was far more devious than she was. He'd been doing it longer. What she did not expect was for Poe to start yelling _before_ he walked into conference room.

"There she is!" Poe shouted, throwing open the doors. "Holding court in her throne room."

He stared around the gathering like a man on the edge of madness. They were in the middle of a briefing for another assignment and no one seemed to know what to make of his behavior. He'd been dark the whole time so no one had a clue.

"Everyone out!" Poe bellowed.

"You don't make that call," Leia said calmly.

"Fine by me. We'll just do this in front of everyone."

Leia looked around the room. "We'll reschedule."

Without another word the room emptied. Even Amilyn stood and made her way from the room. The second the door closed Amilyn had the foresight to lock them down.

"You should have told me!"

"You know I couldn't."

"I get it," Poe spat. "I do. I know why you lied. It was safer for all of us if we thought they were dead, but you should have warned me."

"I didn't tell you because the fewer people that know, the better. He's not the only one, Poe. There were other Rens that got out and he was telling you the truth, they defected. Two we killed before we knew, the rest jumped shipped. Yes, they were the worst. Yes, they were the scariest. Yes, we hunted them down because _we didn't know._ But now we know and we realized what a terrible mistake we made."

"What mistake. What didn't you know? For fucks sake, it's bad enough you sent me in there blind, what the hell else have you lied about, Leia?"

Leia shook her head. "Information is like a cancer. The fewer people that know, the less it spreads, the better this is. I trust you, Poe. I know you're angry but I know you'll see the big picture. I also know you'll tell Kay and Kay will tell someone else and on and on. People will have different opinions. They'll have some but not all the facts. They'll hear only what they want to hear. You reacted badly and just a few weeks ago you were defending this guy. The less you know the safer everyone is."

"You should have warned me," Poe seethed.

"There was nothing to warn you about." Leia stood, coming to the center of the room to meet him. "He's done work for Artie before. I didn't believe he was a threat. He hasn't harmed anyone who wasn't trying to kill him. I know that's hard to hear or believe. I know what you're afraid of because, once, I was too. We were wrong about them in more ways than you could possibly imagine."

"Then tell me," Poe begged.

"I can't, Poe. Some secrets should stay buried."

"Nothing stays buried forever. The First Order is on the rise. Do you know who Armitage Hux is?"

A shiver ran through Leia's body and she had to step back, bracing herself on the table. "You didn't tell Artie."

"Who is he?" Poe seethed.

"The man who developed the training program for the Stormtroopers and the Knights of Ren was Brendol Hux, Armitage's father. He was a brutal bastard and Armitage was his first guinea pig, though the younger Hux was neither Trooper nor Ren." She took a shaky breath, scrubbing her hands across her face. "Armitage Hux is as dangerous as any Ren. If you encounter him again, you do not engage. Get the fuck out of there, do you hear me? The only reason you walked out of that encounter is because he wanted you to."

Her mind caught up to it. The play. It was so obvious, so clear. She deconstructed every angry line on Poe's face and felt her heart sink into the pit of her stomach. It was happening again.

"You're the messenger. This is what the Empire does, and the Hux family does it best. Sow dissent, confusion, discord." She scanned the empty room. "You're giving him what he wants."

"Excuse me?" Poe sneered, angrier than ever.

"Look at me, Poe. Look at me. How do I look?"

"Like a frightened little girl."

She softened. "And when was the last time you saw me like this?"

Poe's eyes narrowed. She watched him work through it. Anger, control, misdirection, kindness, sweetness, humor. Those were Leia's tools. She could put on any face she wanted, but the face she never showed in public was fear. Hux had unseated her, but it might just work to her advantage.

"Never," Poe breathed. He blinked, stepping back and settling against the table opposite her in the conference room. "Shit." He scrubbed a hand across his mouth. "I'm still pissed at you."

"You have every right to be." She sighed. "If I tell you, you have to promise you won't tell Kay."

"I can't do that. You know I tell her everything. We trust each other implicitly."

"Then I'm going to go out on a ledge here and ask you to think very carefully about the lives you will put at risk by repeating what I tell you. The program they used to train the Rens. It was high level brainwashing. Manchurian Candidate shit." She took a deep breath to steady herself. "It was highly specialized to the victim. They used something personal against them. A part of their past, their psyche that they twisted around. No one's ever been able to do what Brendol Hux did to those people. No one will believe it, not after the things the Rens did, but I've seen them. I've met them. I know they can come back from the brink. So do you."

"Did you know what Finn was the whole time?"

"No. Even I don't know who all of them are. Someone else is the keeper of the knowledge. It's better that way. When Finn gave us his blood, it flagged. That's when we reconciled his records, just like Erso's. Two different data trails that turned out to lead to the same person. You have to know, I would never have sent you into a situation with a Ren if I thought you were in danger. I didn't tell you because your guard would have been up and we needed to know if we could really trust him."

"And?" Poe asked.

"Well you did just send him to hell in a handbasket so I think that bridge might be burned."

"I wish you'd told me. He was my friend."

Leia couldn't take much more of this punishment. Poe was a good man. He didn't deserve to be caught in the crossfire of all this, but she had no choice. She had to try. "He still could be. We could use a man like that."

Poe sneered. "Now you sound like Hux."

She snorted, it was an ugly and unpleasant sound even in her own ears. "You aren't the first person to tell me that."

"Who was?"

She looked him dead in the eye. "A Ren."

For the first time since he'd walked in the room Poe looked uncomfortable. The anger had all but burned through him and that final, frigid revelation seemed to have doused the last of it. She could feel the weariness in her bones. Ben almost died, Han came crawling out of the woodwork, now Poe didn't trust her. This was exactly how it felt at the beginning of the last war. Everything spiraling out of control. All the anger and accusation sowing division and dissent.

"We have to trust each other. If we don't, they win." She sighed. "Take Kay. Go sailing. Take as long as you need. Come back when you're ready."

"And if I'm never ready?"

"Then you have another promise to keep."

* * *

Rey had watched many sunsets in her life. Over cities and deserts. From the tops of mountains and across grassy fields. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could have prepared her to watch the sun set over the open ocean. An hour after full dark she could still picture the brilliant colors of the sky bleeding into the sea making it impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

Ben appeared from the deck below with two steaming mugs of coffee in hand. He was still sweating from his spicy noodle dinner, the first meal he'd eaten in over a week that wasn't meticulously crafted for maximum health benefit. She'd long since learned that sometimes the greatest health benefit a food could offer was emotional, not physical.

The chipped cup he handed her looked like it had seen better days. In the light from the main deck overhead she could just make out a faded blue transfer on the stained white surface. The noises Ben made as he took his first sip of coffee were borderline obscene. The only reason she didn't give him a hard time was because if she'd spent seven days without coffee, she'd be making the same sounds.

"I checked sonar again, still nothing." He stared into his mug, his face in shadow. "I think it's time."

She took a deep breath and nodded, following him to the rear of the ship, or the stern as she'd recently learned to call it. There was a semi-circular bench that overlooked a set of steps down to little deck right at the waterline. In the middle of the ring was a round, metal table.

"The temperature will drop quickly now that the sun's down. There should be some blankets under the bench. I'll be right back."

Ben disappeared into the bowels of the ship once more. Rey busied herself retrieving the blankets. The lights flickered, a buzzing sound filled the air and all the electronics on the ship died. It was pitch black save the light of the waning moon reflecting off the water.

"Ben?" she called.

Light streamed out of the opening from below decks. It grew closer until she could see Ben's face in the glow of an LED lantern.

"Should have warned you," he said, stepping out onto the deck. "Kill switch. Electromagnetic pulse with a hundred and fifty foot radius. Guarantees no one is listening."

Rey, wrapped in her blanket, situated herself on the bench. "I'm listening."

"Yeah." He smiled, setting the lamp on the table and twisting it onto some sort of latch in the center. It clicked into place. With a deep sigh he wrapped his blanket around his shoulders and flopped onto the bench.

The ship bounced along on the waves, filling the night air with the sounds of the ocean lapping at the hull. Ben stared into his mug and she found the same openness in him she'd seen earlier. He searched the contents like they had all the answers. Like the secrets to all of life's questions were swirling in the dark liquid.

"Everything I'm about to tell you is highly classified." He spoke in a hushed, measured, introspective cadence she'd never heard him use before. "I didn't warn my mother before bringing you out here, though she probably suspects I was going to. You cannot repeat anything I tell you once we leave this ship. Not even with me. Whatever questions you might have, whatever concerns, you have to get them out tonight. If we need to speak of this again, we'll come back here, but it has to be here. Nowhere else. Do you understand?"

"I do."

He nodded, falling silent again for a long time, his head still bowed over his mug. He looked tired, cold, and Rey was starting to wonder if the hollow look in his eyes was fear.

"The Empire's power had grown unchecked for decades. They were a threat everyone whispered about, but no one could truly fight. My mother's adopted parents were part of a loose coalition who'd chosen to fight the unknown threat. They built the Alliance. My mother's been fighting this war since she was a teenager. When Palpatine had my grandparents assassinated, she moved the base on Alderaan here. Her biological mother was the last queen of Naboo. It was hers by birthright.

"In the decade that followed my grandparents' death, the Alliance grew powerful – the first real danger to Palpatine's tyrannical rule. We turned governments against him, liberated long-time allies who were too afraid to break free, foiled his attempts at building bigger and more powerful weapons. Palpatine was looking for a way to unbalance his enemies. He tried one tactic after another. All of them ended in failure. The Alliance continued unbroken.

"You once asked me the longest an agent had spent in captivity. Six years. That was me. I spent six years in the Empire's hands."

The words hit Rey like a sledgehammer. Six years. He'd been a prisoner – an Imperial prisoner – for six years.

"I was seventeen when they took me. They… they…"

"Stop." Rey reached for him, touching his shoulder. "You don't have to explain."

"I can't explain. Not really." He groped for words, scanning the mug, the tabletop, the deck. None of them seemed to hold the answers he sought. "It was hell and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. What I went through, I nearly didn't make it back from. Not intact. Maybe, still not intact. But there it is."

He fell silent again, the weight of the revelation seemed to hang heavily on him. She could see the rise and fall of his shoulders as he stared out into the darkness, seeing nothing but the horrors in his head. She thought of Dr. Kalonia's warnings, that he might lash out in the night, that he was dangerous to touch during an episode. She understood them now. He'd survived six years of continued abuse.

She took his hand and he jumped at the contact, almost surprised to see her.

"Thank you for telling me."

He frowned. "You deserve to know that there's more to this story, but I can't tell you the rest, not yet." He snorted. "Hopefully not ever, but I'm worried the day may come. I told you this because you've earned my trust and because if you really intend on staying then you need to know that the greatest danger to my psyche isn't in the past anymore. The remnants of the Empire are rallying. We haven't officially released this information to the organization, but there is a group calling themselves the First Order. Some of the people responsible for my… _condition_ are still out there." He shook his head. "I don't know what'll happen if they resurface."

She slid closer to him, squeezing his hand. "You don't have to know. Ben, you don't have to do this alone. You never did. Whatever comes, whatever happens, I've got your back. Let me help you."

He stared down at her, his hair black as pitch in the moonlight, his eyes searching her face uncertainly. "You don't know what you're signing up for. You can still back out. Take the offer. Get your commission." He said the words, but with each one that passed his lips he gripped her hand tighter, drew her in closer.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"This isn't flying. All I have to offer you are chains. Chained to a microphone and a desk. This could get ugly. _I _could get ugly."

She kneeled on the bench, taking his face in her hands. "I'm not going anywhere."

"You can't promise that," he breathed.

"I'm not going anywhere." She pressed her forehead to his and closed her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere."

She felt him move, heard the mug clink on the table, arms wrapped around her and pulled her in until his face was pressed into her shoulder. She held him for a long time in silence, fingers bunched in his hair and in his sweater. A subtle tremor ran through him, whether fear or the cold she couldn't be certain. It resolved into to a low chuckle.

"What?" she asked.

"You're going to live to regret this," he whispered.

She sighed. "I already do."

* * *

The light was still on in the dining room downstairs, which told Amilyn that Leia was still awake and more than likely staring out to sea. Ben had gone straight from solitary out onto the open water and taken Rey with him. They hadn't even set foot in their new house yet. She was very much looking forward to the phone call when they did. So far they'd been gone three days. At five Leia was likely to send a rescue team.

Amilyn made her way down the stairs to the bay window overlooking the ocean. Leia was exactly where she expected, tablet discarded on the cushion. Amilyn took a seat across from her friend and reviewed Ben's biometric data.

"This looks really good."

Leia nodded, but did not turn.

"He did always love the sea."

"It isn't the sea that's helping him sleep." Leia mumbled, eyes still searching the night. "Go back to the previous screen."

Amilyn hit the back button and found a video file in the recent applications. She played it. It was the living room monitor from Ben's old house. The date stamp indicated it was two nights before he left for Tokyo. The video started at midnight and would run for six hours. Ben and Rey were lying on the couch, Rey asleep, Ben watching a movie. She sped the video up and watched as they rolled around the bed until Rey curled into Ben's side and he seemed to fall asleep.

"Co-sleeping," Leia said. "Harter told me about it while Ben was in the tank. That one night of really good sleep he got…" She glanced over at Amilyn then down to the tablet. "It's the reason she wanted him under quarantine. To check his natural sleep habits against a healed, rested baseline. His sleep was acceptable before. It's great now." She turned back to the window.

"Then this is a good thing," Amilyn said.

Leia cocked an eyebrow. "Until I give her that field commission I promised. Then we're back to square one."

"We don't have to be." Amilyn reached for Leia's arm. "What about a three man pod?"

Leia's head turned slowly, as though she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Are you serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Three man pods are cursed."

Amilyn rolled her eyes. "You don't believe that."

"Kanan Jarrus died and Hera left us," Leia spat.

"She didn't go far," Amilyn countered.

"What about us? What about Han?" Leia crossed her arms over her chest. "We fought, constantly."

"And it had nothing to do with being in the same pod. You could find anything to fight about. I remember, I was there!" Amilyn chuckled. "The Ferrari. The fridge door." She clapped her hands together. "The curtains! You two spent an hour yelling at each other over a set of curtains. As I recall, not that I could ever forget, you did not go to bed angry at each other."

Leia chuckled. "We were terrible housemates."

"You were."

"I'm not so terrible now, am I?"

"You've got no one to fight with." Amilyn sighed. "That doesn't mean it's a bad idea."

Leia shook her head. "Ben will never go for it."

"He could be convinced. He's stubborn, but she's just as bad. Let me put the bug in her ear. As long as it doesn't come from you he'll be far less likely to fight it. It could be good for both of them."

Leia sighed. "Hold off for a while though. Give him some room to focus on his recovery before bringing it up to her."

"Of course." Amilyn glanced down at video and swiped back to his biometric readings. His heart rate was in the low fifties and he was in deep sleep. A few weeks of this and he'd be good as new. "Did you ever suspect that it might go this way? I mean, the potential was there for them to get on very well, but this…"

"No." Leia shook her head. "In fact, if I had, I might not have done it at all."

"Why not?" Amilyn was surprised to hear Leia say that. It was the last thing she'd expected to hear. "The roles lend themselves to this level of trust. They need to rely on each other. She's been very open with him and this is the first time we're seeing him open up in exchange. He needs that. He's needed someone to trust for a long time. Someone who has no reason to have an ulterior motive."

"What if it escalates?" Leia said, coolly. She was tempering her voice now, curating her responses. She rarely did that with Amilyn.

The reason was obvious, though still surprising to Amilyn. "You're afraid he's going to develop other feelings for the girl?"

"Yes. I can send my son into danger, to dodge bullets and sleep with strangers, but _that _terrifies me," Leia said flatly, turning back to the window. "He's never been in love before. He doesn't know what it costs. What it requires. What it means to have and to keep. Not in this line of work. Whatever I am, I'm still his mother and I don't want him to have to suffer a broken heart on top of everything else he's already suffered."

Amylin reached for Leia again, prying her arm free and threading her fingers through Leia's hand. The left one where she still wore her wedding ring and the fraying hemp bracelet on her wrist. "You forget. We don't die of broken hearts. He'll live and he'll be stronger for it."

Leia softened, turning to Amilyn, the façade slipping. There was such a sadness in Leia whenever they strayed too close to this subject. Leia placed her other hand over Amilyn's. "I wish I could be what you needed."

Amilyn smiled, though she knew it did not reach her eyes. It certainly didn't reach her heart. "You are."

"You're a better liar than that," Leia whispered.

"I'm not lying, Leia. That doesn't mean I'm rejoicing either. It is what is." Amilyn squeezed her best friend's hand. "It's time to get some sleep. Let him go, Leia. He's forging his own path. You have to trust him."

"Trusting him is how we ended up in this mess," Leia snorted.

"And maybe that's a good thing," Amilyn countered.

* * *

"In the bathroom and bedroom too?" Rey asked.

"Three hundred and sixty degree monitoring. They'll be watching me everywhere," Ben said, taking the final turn off Mountain Pass to the two highest houses. His mother's was up ahead on the left and his new abode was on the right, built right along the cliff so the bedrooms faced the drop off. It was only mildly unsettling that his mother's front door looked out over his home. It felt a lot like being kept closer, the way one might keep their enemies.

"Holy crap! That's our new house?" Rey unbuckled her belt and pulled herself out of her seat as they approached. "Why is it so big? Are there more rooms?"

"Not bedrooms, no." Ben pulled into the driveway. "Ematt had a few requests. There's supposed to be some sort of sun room below the bedrooms. He likes to paint, I think. And there's a full basement level too. Gym. Pair of shooting lanes. I mean, he's earned it."

"How old is he anyway?" Rey leaped over the door as they pulled to a stop.

"Seventy eight." He put the car in park and hopped out.

"You're shitting me."

Ben shook his head, smiling. "That's why he wants to retire."

"I would too," she admitted, eyeing the house.

"Hey, no running off." He pulled the canvas top up and Rey came around the side to close her end. Ben went around back to grab their bag and held it out for her.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you giving me this?"

"You carry the bag. I carry you across the threshold." He shrugged.

She shoved the bag into his chest and made for the house, but he wasn't having any of that. He rushed up behind her, scooping her up and throwing her over his shoulder. The tried and true fireman carry.

"Put! Me! Down!" She hollered, though he could hear the laughter in her voice.

"Can't. You're my wife. It's tradition." With a bag slung across either shoulder, he opened the door and angled Rey so she was facing the alarm panel. "Shut that off, will ya?"

"Put me down and I'll shut it off."

"Shut it off and I'll put you down."

"I'm going to murder you one of these days," she seethed.

Electronic beeping filled the air as she punched in the code and scanned her retina. Six rapid beeps signaled the all clear. He slid his bride onto the ground and she punched him in the arm.

"Ow."

She rolled her eyes. "You earned that."

"Still, ow."

Rey turned and they both examined a very similar looking house to the one they had before. Laundry on their immediate left, stairs up to the open second floor landing beyond. Kitchen straight ahead, living room beyond. On their right they used to have a sitting room, but that was now a staircase leading down. Beyond that was the dining table exactly where it was before. Beyond the dining room table was another new feature, a door. Rey ran toward it with the curiosity of a child.

Ben gave the place one last visual sweep. It was a bit larger overall. Having the same furniture brought that into focus as it_ felt_ smaller in the new space. He made his way through the kitchen into the living room, running his hands on the snuggie draped over the back of the sofa. They could get a bigger sofa, but if they did then he wouldn't have as many excuses to get close to her and now that he knew for certain she was his sleep drug, he had no intention of creating more room to spread out.

"Ben!" Rey shouted. "Get in here! You have to see this!"

He ran his hand along the snuggie one last time and wandered toward the rear of the house and the new room. Unsurprisingly, it was empty. They'd have the privilege of choosing what to do with the room until Ematt arrived. He'd seen the spec for the house so he knew what to expect, but seeing in person was very different. The room ran the length of the house from north to south. The outward facing wall was made entirely of a nearly invisible glass. The view of the ocean that morning was stunning. Sunsets, since the room faced West, were probably more so.

"I like this," Rey said.

"If you like this, then let's head upstairs." Ben checked his watch. "I have a session with Harter. She's been forgiving so far, but if I skip any more she'll pull my field commission."

They crossed the living room to the stairs on the north side of the house and ascended, Ben first and Rey right behind him. He slipped into his room, which they'd laid out exactly the way it was before. Bed right in the center under the window. Again, he found something new. To the left of his bed, between it and the closet which now ran the length of the wall – bit excessive in his opinion – was a French door leading out onto a balcony.

"We have a balcony?" Rey zipped past him and out onto the balcony. "That is a looooong drop!" She shouted over the roar of the wind and ocean.

He realized then how good the soundproofing was. He hadn't noticed how loud it got out there. He came up behind Rey and grabbed her sides, suddenly. "Don't fall."

She jumped and spun on him. He was ready for a blow, but none came. She just shook her head and smiled, trotting across to the other end of the balcony and heading into her room. Ben went back through his own door and over to the bathroom that connected their rooms. Rey appeared on the other side, frowning.

"Still only one? All this room and they couldn't put in private bathrooms?"

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorframe. "Is it so bad sharing a bathroom with me? I'm clean. I put the seat down more often than you do."

She cocked an eyebrow. "You stare at me when I'm undressing."

He smiled mischievously. "You leave the door open."

"If I close it I won't be able to hear you. Doesn't mean you have to look."

"If I can see the mirror it's fair game!"

She narrowed her eyes at him, but did not refute his statement. He wondered if she was learning to play the game. If she'd use this knowledge to pay him back for all the personal space invasions, not that he'd mind. After a moment, he nodded toward the shower, glancing down the narrow passage to the end of the bathroom. When Rey didn't move he did it again.

"What?"

"Go, look," he replied evenly.

She stepped into the bathroom, past the stalls for their two toilets and toward the passage. When she got close enough to him to see it, she frowned.

"The party shower's smaller." She narrowed her eyes at him. "What's back there?"

He shrugged, feigning ignorance.

She made her way toward the rear slowly. It would only take a couple of steps and she'd see it. The second she did she rushed forward. At the far end, behind the showers and hidden from the camera was a cream enameled, cast iron, claw footed, soaking tub. He noticed the ye olde timey brass taps too. He hadn't ordered those. Amilyn had gotten creative.

Rey ran her hand along the lip of the tub, admiring it in open mouthed wonder. She was in love and he couldn't be happier.

"Did you do this?"

Ben thrust his hands into his pockets, shrugging. "I have piss poor communication skills."

She crashed into him at speed, throwing her arms around his chest and squeezing. "It's wonderful. Thank you, Ben."

He didn't know what to say, so he hugged her back. He hoped it was enough. "Alright. I have to shower and get to my appointment. You can break it in after I leave."

She stepped back and nodded, making her way into her bedroom.

Ben followed her, poking his head through the door into her room. "Just do me a favor, please."

She looked up at him. "Yeah?"

"Take pictures."

Her expression soured. She walked over to him, placing a hand on his chest and pushing him into the bathroom until he was clear of the door, then shutting it in his face. He heard the click of the lock and smiled.

"Is that a yes?"

No response.

"Maybe?"

No response.

"There are cameras you know."

"The cameras are mounted over the vanity. You can't see the tub."

"Fine, I'll use my imagination." He couldn't see it, but he knew Rey was smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See you in Part 3! Oh yeah… 16 DAYS TO RISE OF SKYWALKER AND MY BIRTHDAY!!!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! 🖤
> 
> I'm still working on the story. I've started making monthly updates on my DtD progress. If you're interested I make updates to Tumblr ([@thoseindarkness](https://thoseindarkness.tumblr.com/)) and Twitter ([@thoseindarkness](https://twitter.com/thoseindarkness)). Both are public. No account needed. I'm one of those writers that loves to talk to people directly so please feel free to reach out to me. You can shoot me an e-mail (available in my profile) or ask me for my info on Discord. 
> 
> Every author is different so I'm going to be explicit: 
> 
> **MY COMMENT SECTION IS OPEN FOR ANY AND ALL POSTERS**
> 
> You are free to post anything you like in the comments of this story. Point out my grammar and spelling mistakes, talk about areas of the prose that you didn't quite understand/weren't clear, give your personal opinions (positive or negative) about the story. Tell me what you loved. Tell me what you hated. If you felt the characters were OOC I want to know why. What made you uncomfortable? What made you scream at the top of your lungs? How hot did I make you? Give Amazon style reviews (yes, I said it). You can also PM if you don't feel comfortable posting publicly. My box is open (some pun intended).
> 
> I want you to say whatever you want. I'm the kind of writer that uses fan fiction as a method for expanding my skill. Your feedback is 24K gold to me no matter what kind. If you have something to say: SAY IT! You don't have to be afraid of hurting me. My skin is mythril, my bones are adamantium, and my heart is encased in unobtainium. Your words cannot hurt me, only make me stronger. I ask only that you not attack each other. I've painted the target on my own back. Please, don't miss.
> 
> BOMBS AWAY…


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